Times of India creates roadblock for Volkswagen brands

Times of India creates roadblock for Volkswagen brands

MUMBAI: Taking advantage of the economic slowdown, advertisers have worked out a new formula in what they term as a roadblock strategy.

Television channels were the first to benefit from this with HUL blocking out all ads on Star and Zee network channels so that its brands maximise their exposure and, hence, impact.

The print is catching on to this trend as advertisers pay a premium to let only their brands find commercial space on that "roadblocked" day.

The Times of India (TOI) has created the first print roadblock for German car manufacturer Volkswagen across its edition of 11 November.

Volkswagen has spent around Rs 100 million for the one- day roadblock, as per industry estimates.

As part of the roadblock, all Volkswagen brands including Jetta, Passat and Touareg have been advertised on all editions of TOI today. 
 
This is Volkswagen‘s first India campaign which MediaCom, the media agency for the car brand, has crafted for the region.

TOI claims that the idea behind the roadblock is to co-create a single-engagement proposition for Volkswagen, thereby creating a huge impact.
 
Earlier in September, FMCG major Hindustan Unilever (HUL) blocked an entire day on Star and Zee networks and consumed the entire advertising airtime.

Ads of 20 HUL brands ran across 10 channels of the Star network including Star Plus, Star One, Star Gold, Star Utsav, Star Movies, Star World, Channel [V], Star Jalsha, Star Pravah and Star Vijay on 17 September.
 
On 24 September, a similar exercise was repeated on the Zee network with HUL running ads across 25 Zee channels.

HUL repeated the roadblock on the Star network channels on 29 October.