How do you do something good for millions around the word with virtually no media money? This is the story of how Volkswagen thought innovatively and set a new milestone in frugal innovation.

If the number of phones and number of cars in China were countries, they would rank No. 3 and No.11 in population! China sure has a lot of phone connections. In fact number of mobile phone connections in China is more than the populations of US, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan and Nigeria all put together.

Similarly, the number of cars in China is more than the populations of Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Vietnam, Egypt and Germany put together.

What is significant about these numbers is not how big they are but what happens when they come together. When we think about number of drivers using mobile phones while driving – that is when it becomes scary. Driving and talking on the phone should not mix but it happens all the time. This is a huge risk to lives of millions of people every day.

As a leading car brand in China, Volkswagen took it upon itself to change this. We decided to raise awareness about the life risk associated with the use of mobile phones while driving and took this message to the world.

While car configurators most often use 3D to show their cars, we wanted to take the 3D and also the 360° experience to a more exciting and fun level. And at the same time bring out the personality of the Bug (Beetle). In China, the Bug translates as Jia Ke Chong or Armored Bug, so we wanted play off of this insight. But at the same time provide access to features as well.

The site has just been launched in the 3rd week of April, but it is of course bringing a good amount of fun and helping to reflect a more invigorating VW Beetle personality than an ordinary configurator would.