I visited India in 2010, and found it to be a fascinating country.

My uncle, Mr. Lutz Kothe, is the marketing Director of Volkswagen Passenger Cars in India, and when he came to visit us later in Germany he brought with him a booklet describing in words and pictures all the different advertising campaigns that they had carried out in India. I was really inspired by this, and before he left I thought out several advertising ideas for him, penned and drew them on paper and gave him to take along. One of these ideas he found to be so good, that he discussed it with his team in India and they decided to put it into action for the launch of their Vento car. My idea was a "talking newspaper", a newspaper that would talk to you when opened. The Volkswagen team developed an Ipod sized device, that was then embedded in 2,5 million copies of the "Times of India" and "The Hindu" newspaper on September 21st, 2010.

It was the first time ever that this has been done in a newspaper anywhere in the world, and it created a storm of media attention in India, with newspaper articles, e-news references, chat-room discussions, interviews with my uncle, etc. Not to mention the advertising and media attention it created for their Vento car. I was credited in several newspaper interviews in India with the idea, received a gift and acknowledgement letter from the Director of Volkswagen India Passenger Cars, and my school newspaper in Landheim , Bullehtin, ran a feature article about it. So this is my India story!

Please find links to the Times of India ad and the newspaper articles.

Here I am on Juhu Beach in Mumbai, India, in 2010.