[joslicx]

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

Why doesn't someone buy the front page of TOI for a day and print the pictures from the thread where VW have bashed up a customers car ?

That will be even stevens I guess !

Well VW are one of the major sponsors for TOI. I doubt they would allow that.

What the concerned person can do (and is probably more cost effective) is to print posters about that and stick them at prominent locations in the city (I think its Pune). That would also attact VW's serious attention for sure.

[puchoo]

Quite right , i thought it was quite a unique manner to create an impact - of course lower down if one compares it to the talking paper but i liked it nevertheless.

12 Crores is the estimated money spent and if one wishes to read some industry expert reviews on what they though - this is a good one.

http://www.mxmindia.com/2012/09/innovation-or-gimmick/

Originally Posted by anuragn

The amount of intellectual discussion it has generated over that stupid little vibrator thingy in itself is proof of success....of the ad.

[anuragn]

Originally Posted by SkyWalker

well, I get this any publicity is good publicity philosophy. But if success is measured by how much people talk, to get people talking about it - probably this UPA is govt. is the most successful ever in India, and Kasab most successful man in India

If an ad cant even get the attention and publicity to start with, then what good is it? Or does it imply that only bad things should get publicity and getting publicity is bad?

Originally Posted by SkyWalker

yes, the ad could have become 'controversial'. But what does it say about the brand VW? An advertisement is a means to an end. Do you really see people associating a positive memory to VW brand due to this? My association with the brand+ VW after seeing the ad = silliness.

Controversy? What? Where? How?
An ad has to say something about the product or brand or both. And it does talk about the products i.e. quality, safety and all. And full four pages of it.

[SkyWalker]

Originally Posted by anuragn

If an ad cant even get the attention and publicity to start with, then what good is it? Or does it imply that only bad things should get publicity and getting publicity is bad?

I am just replying to your statement in which you said...

Originally Posted by anuragn

See how much interest this has generated here. The aim of this ad would be to get people talking about it...

The amount of intellectual discussion it has generated over that stupid little vibrator thingy in itself is proof of success....of the ad.

You yourself has indicated that they did something stupid to gather publicity.

Originally Posted by anuragn

And it does talk about the products i.e. quality, safety and all. And full four pages of it.

Which no one has read or nor is talking about

[carzone]

Originally Posted by lamboguy

I just couldn't help but rip open the vibrater thing after it died out.

Attachment 983877

I am in no way an engineering student. But this is what I think it is as a lay man. The actual vibrating device is powered by 2 tiny batteries attached to a light sensor working as a switch.

Now I feel stupid for thinking it was solar powered. Just imagine the cost escalation it would have led to!

Please Don't kill me.
For anyone who wants to know how this thing works:

*It is powered by a very low standard battery. They have used two of them.

*It uses a LDR (Light Dependent Resistor) that senses the light falling on it.

*It uses a crystal oscillator for the vibrations.

When the light falls on the LDR, the resistance of the LDR decreases and hence causes more current from the battery to reach the crystal oscillator.
When there is no light source, it has maximum resistance and hence there is no vibrations. As the current to the crystal increases, so does the vibrations.

Costs:
Two Batteries : 15-20 Rs. if bought in bulk or may be even less.
A crystal oscillator : 5 Rs.
A LDR: 5 Rs. If bought as a single piece.
Cost of making a PCB : 2 Rs. (Bulk)

This device may have cost VW around Rs 30 per device.

Please don't kill me for this post, the device was postmortem-ed as soon as it reached our college. We had a good time seeing the vibrations by powering up the crystal directly till eventually it died out due to excessive voltage!
It was a good gimmick by VW which doubled up as a passtime for us in the lectures and some irritating sound for the professors.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by nileshch

Dont know if anyone was watching VW India's tweets today. They had tweeted a bad joke about the ad.

Of course they deleted it quickly as soon as they realized it would be a media disaster. My friend managed to take a screenshot of the tweet. See it for yourself!

This VW ad and the tweet has made it to Jalopnik as well. I can not put the link here because the photo on the article is NSFW (not safe for work, that is)

[PPS]

Read do not understand real driving experience! #creative

http://www.motorbeam.com/cars/volksw...ad-back-fires/

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by carzone

Two Batteries : 15-20 Rs. if bought in bulk or may be even less.
A crystal oscillator : 5 Rs.
A LDR: 5 Rs. If bought as a single piece.
Cost of making a PCB : 2 Rs. (Bulk)

Nope. Two batteries (5rs total max)
Oscillator 1rs
LDR 1rs
PCD 1rs

When you do bulk manufacturing, electronics go very cheap.
For example, a modem SOC often sells for 5$. Its the heart of the modem which costs 50$ in the market.

BOM of a 500$ phone is often 150$ and that too mostly due to the AMOLED

[carzone]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Nope. Two batteries (5rs total max)
Oscillator 1rs
LDR 1rs
PCD 1rs

When you do bulk manufacturing, electronics go very cheap.
For example, a modem SOC often sells for 5$. Its the heart of the modem which costs 50$ in the market.

BOM of a 500$ phone is often 150$ and that too mostly due to the AMOLED

You are right.
These prices I have assumed is what I had come to know while making a project a year ago.
I have no idea how much does it cost in bulk production,

[black_rider]

Originally Posted by carzone

*It uses a crystal oscillator for the vibrations.

Its not a Crystal Oscillator but a motor with a unbalanced weight on its shaft.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrating_alert

Motor shown on wiki page is not what was came along with the newspaper, but that thing works on the same principle, just a different form factor. Something like this : http://www.precisionmicrodrives.com/...ibration-motor

[carzone]

Originally Posted by black_rider

Its not a Crystal Oscillator but a motor with a unbalanced weight on its shaft.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrating_alert

Motor shown on wiki page is not what was came along with the newspaper, but that thing works on the same principle, just a different form factor. Something like this : http://www.precisionmicrodrives.com/...ibration-motor

Thanks buddy. A friend of mine told me that this might be a motor, but being not sure, we concluded that it might be a crystal as it is more popular.
Thanks for getting us to the right thing!

[audioholic]

^^ The same debate took place in my class too. Crystal oscillators produce electrical signals of relatively high frequencies and not mechanical vibrations like what was found here.

[thoma]

The cat is out of the box. 5-7 crores for this gimmick! I guess Volkswagen has still not understood the very basics of Indian market where word of mouth is the biggest publicity. You have to evolve as a household name, not proclaim yourselves as one. That was what the stalwarts in the Indian industry had done, which is writ large and clear. And for that, you need to spruce up your basics - sales and service. They could have spent a portion of the above ad to develop new service centers in more locations. Or they could even have explained about their history, production and processes in all the leading local dailies, may be in the local language too. It should not only be money that makes people buy your cars, but dreams too. You should be able to make the people have a Volkswagen as their dream-car. I am not against innovative ads, but here, have the purpose been really served? I doubt.

Volkswagen, you already had an initial advantage in the minds of the Indian people - maker of sturdy German cars. You just had to work on it a bit - make your cars more reliable and easy to own. Just that. The word will travel like wildfire. Instead what you are doing? Destroying the good name by challenging even the existing customers.

The advertisement, which cost Volkswagen between Rs 5-7 crore, is almost 70% higher than a regular jacket double spread across six metros.

While it did get tongues wagging - both Volkswagen and Bombay Times trended on Twitter, though for reasons Volkswagen would not appreciate - the car manufacturer claims that its latest innovation has helped it record a 200% spike in dealer inquiries on day one.

Lutz Kothe, head, marketing & PR, VW Passenger Cars,
Volkswagen Group Sales India, says that normally, till around 9am, we have roughly 100 enquiries in our sales centre. Today, we had 1150 already. But there are three targets that we want to hit. First, to create awareness for the brand. Second, is to support our sales and bring our roughly new cars to the road. Third, if you open the jacket, it's a double spread. And you can see, the headline tells you why only Volkswagen can build a Volkswagen.

Source: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/cnb...d-_756559.html

I am not a marketing person or do not have any hidden agenda. This just came out of the mind of an aam aadmi who had Volkswagen in his dreams, me. But will I buy it?

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by audioholic

^^ The same debate took place in my class too. Crystal oscillators produce electrical signals of relatively high frequencies and not mechanical vibrations like what was found here.

probably not the sort of discussions that VW was trying to instigate, now.
Kudos, they got people talking, but about what?

[audioholic]

I am curious to know what they did to the person who suggested this agenda! I am sure his details wouldnt be given out else he will surely not be able to show his face, after the way the media and people including us have considered it!