Volkswagen India Case Study
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Volkswagen launched an innovative marketing campaign on LinkedIn to raise brand awareness among Indian professionals. They created a Company Page to allow members to recommend VW models, generating over 2,700 recommendations in 30 days. VW also used LinkedIn Recommendation Ads, reaching over 960,000 people and gaining 2,300 new followers. The campaign was highly successful in engaging working professionals where they spend much of their time.
Volkswagen India Case Study
- 1. Marketing Solutions Volkswagen India Case Study Innovative campaign inspires 2,700 car recommendations in 4 weeks Volkswagen (VW) is one of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers and the largest carmaker in Europe. As Volkswagen pursues its goal of becoming the number one Challenge automaker in the world by 2018, India has become a key • Create brand awareness among working professionals component of its strategy. India is currently the world’s • Build loyalty and aspiration second fastest growing car market, with shipments expected to more than double by 2018.1 • Influence decision-making As a relatively recent entry into the Indian automotive market, VW needed to raise brand awareness. To address Solution this challenge, Volkswagen’s marketing team focused one of • EstablishVW-branded Company Page on LinkedIn its key brand pillars, innovation, to make a strong impact • Enable LinkedIn members to recommend their favorite throughout the roll-out in India. Innovation was showcased VW models not only in Volkswagen’s product introductions, but also in • Use LinkedIn Recommendation Ads to extend reach its communications and advertising. Innovative marketing strategies raise awareness Why LinkedIn? • #1 resource for career-minded professionals VW India created groundbreaking campaigns such as the world’s first ‘talking newspaper’, which used light-sensitive • Precise targeting by seniority and geography ensures chips to speak to readers about Volkswagen as they turned match with affordability criteria, dealership locations the pages of their morning newspaper. The talking newspaper ad created a sensation in India, and garnered Results worldwide attention for taking print advertising to a new level. In one year, brand awareness more than quadrupled, • 2,700 product recommendations in 30 days increasing from 8 percent to a high of 37 percent. • 2,300 new followers on VW India Company Page • 960,000 viral updates about VW car models Volkswagen next turned to digital media to extend its success and create new opportunities for customers to connect with the brand. Lutz Kothe, Head of Marketing for VW India, says, “At Volkswagen, innovation is woven into everything we do. In formulating our digital strategy, we looked beyond the obvious for innovative ways to engage our audience. We knew that for many people, their car affects their professional life and their professional identity affects their car choices. This made LinkedIn a natural choice to connect with current and potential car buyers among the growing Indian professional population.” 1 ”Indian car market growth second fastest globally,” The Times of India, Jan 12, 2011; IHS Global Insight Automotive Industry Analysis, (data status: 07/02/11), rounded.
- 2. Recommendation Ads get people talking Next, Volkswagen launched a series of Recommendation Ads encouraging more customers to join the conversation. Each ad showcased endorsements of actual LinkedIn members, and invited the community to recommend their favorite Volkswagen model. Volkswagen used LinkedIn’s broad reach (100 million members worldwide, 9 million in India) and precise targeting capabilities to connect with professionals who matched the buyer profiles for their different models. Lutz Kothe said, “Volkswagen was the first company in India to use LinkedIn Recommendation Ads, and the campaign was a success. We went in with a goal of inspiring 500 recommendations among current and prospective car buyers. In less than 30 days, over LinkedIn Recommendations are ‘Network Aware,’ allowing 2,700 Volkswagen fans had stepped forward to recommend their members to see who in their professional network has favorite cars and share these recommendations with their recommended VW products professional networks. In the same time period, we gained over 2,300 followers who asked to stay abreast of the latest news and developments from Volkswagen. Engaging working professionals on LinkedIn Kothe concludes, “In a world where people spend an increasing LinkedIn approached Volkswagen India with an opportunity amount of time at work, thinking about work, and interacting with to be the first auto major to establish a presence on LinkedIn their work colleagues, we believe it’s important to foster Company Pages. ‘Company Pages’ provide a branded home discussion about Volkswagen products in a professional context. base within the LinkedIn community where businesses can Our innovative partnership with LinkedIn lets our customers learn showcase their company, products, and services in a trusted, about Volkswagen products and provides insights”. professional environment. Volkswagen India participated in the worldwide launch of Recommendation Ads accelerate results Company Pages in November 2010, and soon thereafter opened up their pages to allow LinkedIn members to post 3000 reviews and recommendations of their car line in India including the New Beetle, Vento, and Polo. 2500 Mr. Lutz Kothe, Head of Marketing & PR, Volkswagen 2000 Passenger Cars says “We were pleasantly surprised to see Launch of Recommendation Ads how easy it was to create our Company Page on LinkedIn 1500 and start engaging with customers among the LinkedIn community. Furthermore, the quality of interaction was 1000 very high. 500 0 Week 0 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 LinkedIn member-generated recommendations of VW car models increased dramatically with the launch the recommendation ad campaign. Over 2,700 Volkswagen fans recommended their favorite car models to their professional network in just four weeks. Sample Volkswagen recommendation ad featuring the new Beetle Reach the world’s largest audience of business professionals with LinkedIn. LinkedIn Marketing Solutions http://marketing.linkedin.com/contact Copyright © 2011 LinkedIn Corporation. LinkedIn, the LinkedIn logo, and InMail are registered trademarks of LinkedIn Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other brands and names are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. 10-LCS-032-G 0511