WisconsInnovation

Have you ever walked into Walgreens looking to buy a cheap card for someone’s birthday and ended up buying one of those expensive singing cards because for some reason you thought it was worth the extra 4 dollars to have the recipient possibly remember it. Well that is the exact theory behind Volkswagon’s new marketing strategy they unveiled yesterday in “The Times of India.”

Some may say this is a great way to grab readers attention as Moulin Parikh stated, “One of those rare days when ppl in #mumbai will buy times of india to see (also hear) the Volkswagen advertisement and not for news,” but after this initial innovative marketing ploy will people really enjoy this type of ad.

The idea is brilliant since Volkswagon was the first and was the talk of the town in Mumbai for an entire day, which there are very few ads in a newspaper or in general that are able to create that much hype, but I don't think followers will be as succesful. In my opinion, in the future I would have to take out that page and set it somewhere separate from the part I was reading and in the back of my mind be thinking “Thanks Volkswagon for now officially making reading the daily newspaper quite annoying.” Maybe that is what companies will go for, whether good or bad, but this seems like a very expensive way to just get their name in the back of readers minds. That being said I am looking forward to what other companies come up with to try to top the talking advertisement.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/09/volkswagen-plants-audio-ad-in-print-newspaper/