Volkswagen and NGC's 'Innovations for Everyone' campaign gets favourable response

The campaign aimed to identify the potential of relevant innovations to help improve the quality of life.

'Innovations for Everyone', a campaign that was initiated by Volkswagen in association with the National Geographic Channel in September, announced its winners yesterday.

In a quest to discover India's most innovative and creative ideas in the field of technology, re-engineering and environment, Volkswagen rolled out this effort that eventually received participation from 5765 individuals.

The initiative was open to people from all age groups and aimed to encourage life changing ideas. It invited ideas in categories such as telecommunication; Internet and e-commerce; healthcare and medicines; energy saving and environment; science and technology; fashion and lifestyle; and business and enterprise. The campaign was promoted via online, as well as some print and TV promos, especially on the NGC Network.

The entries for the contest were eventually judged across three groups, including Technology Edge - a project on inventing something new; Re-Engineering Edge - inventing and improving any existing invention; and Environment Edge - a project to save the environment.

The three winning innovations won Rs 3 lakh each for their efforts.

While the entries were judged by Lutz Kothe, head, marketing and PR, Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Volkswagen Group Sales; Keertan Adyanthaya, managing director, Fox International Channel and National Geographic Network India; and Dr. Anil Wali, MD, Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) New Delhi, a public vote also decided who would win a Vento, Volkswagen's latest premium entry level sedan, and this went to Balaji KV.

Commenting on the campaign, Kothe says, "Innovation is one of our key brand pillars and with this campaign, our attempt was to bring the brand closer to the people of India. We wanted them to think free, give their ideas and thoughts an identity and move towards a world of modernisation. We are delighted with the response that we have received with this very first campaign. We look forward to continue this campaign in future."

Adyanthaya adds, "India has some tremendous potential and in the past has also given some of the greatest talents such as Amartya Sen, APJ Abdul Kalam and CV Raman to the world. It is imperative that we should leverage the talent of the country and bring it to light. We are extremely excited to put these new ideas into practice and encourage innovation in the country."

The three winning projects will also have three short films made on them, which will later be aired on NGC.