Volkswagen has been doing all it can to up its visibility in India the past few years. It wouldn’t hurt, after all, to sell well in the country with the second largest population, right?

So it has run ads that make newspapers “talk” and bought silver wraps for newspapers to show off the Jetta’s cool coloring. A few years ago, it lowered a Vento from a skyscraper to introduce it to the nation.

The latest innovation from VW’s marketing gurus is a vibrating newspaper. As news consumers opened one of three papers – The Times of India, The Hindustan Times and The Hindu – a light-sensitive chip attached to ads that teased "Feel the Shiver of Excitement" for the Polo and Vento vibrated the paper — “quite literally, communicating to readers the shiver of excitement they’ll experience when they see the exciting new features” in the cars, according to Asia Media Journal.

Talk about buzz marketing. The move followed an earlier ad tech move in the The Times of India — a talking newspaper ad — that also grabbed readers' attention.Continue reading...

What’s black and white and red in the face?

Since The New York Times ran an expose of the toxic corporate culture at Tribune Co. – owner of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and other mega-media brands – Tribune has been falling to pieces.

Of course, Tribune has been attempting to put bankruptcy court behind them since its 2007 acquisition by real estate magnate Sam Zell. But more to the point these days is that Zell’s hand-picked CEO, Randy Michaels, seemed to have established a modus operandi at company headquarters in Chicago that only could be described as ink-stained raunch.

That led to Michaels’ recent departure, as Tribune creditors began to press for a whole new start for the company. And now, there is growing pressure for various Michaels confidants, associates and fellow travelers to leave the company as well.Continue reading...