With the arrival of the Fiat 500 now just weeks away, Fiat has reveal that feedback from visitors to the official '500 wants you' website has influenced the range of options for the new small car - it will in fact be available with no less than 500,000 different combinations.

The recent 500X500 online booking promotion was also deemed a huge success. The 500 online reservation requests available to website visitors were received in less than 500 minutes for the exclusive ‘500 wants you’ advance booking initiative.

"In the year that the '500 wants you' site has been up and running, you have come up with a whole host of accessories and ideas for customising the car, you have brought it to life through music, images and video of all sorts, you have seen it first, and you have thought of advertising ideas for its launch… but did you know that you have also helped to define its colours, interiors and contents," said a Fiat press release this week. "During the past few months, many articles have been written, many guesses made and lots of rumours started about the contents of the new 500, but very few people actually know that they come, in fact, from your suggestions and ideas. That is why the 500 now wants to thank you, by revealing how you have helped to define some of its features. We start in this newsletter with a few details about the exterior colours, wheels and accessories. And in the near future we will be giving you some details about the engines and interiors.

PREVIEW – COLOURS AND WHEELS

"Almost the entire range of exterior colours for the new Fiat 500 were chosen by you in the configurations made using Concept Lab I and II. To give you an idea, we can tell you that the most popular colours included white, red, black and light blue. The designers at the Fiat Style Centre made a few changes to the various shades to adapt them better to the car’s personality.
 

"The same goes for the wheels: of all the various models available in the Concept Lab, the most popular will be available on the new Fiat 500. And it has already been used on the car used for the first official photo shoot."

PREVIEW – ACCESSORIES

"Italian style, sportiness, technology: these were your suggestions for the accessories on the new Fiat 500, with ideas taken from the Concept Lab and the Sticker Art Contest. We can tell you, for example, that one of the most popular accessories in the Concept Lab was the ‘flag logo'. We can’t tell you much more at the moment, other than the fact that there will be so many different accessories available that you will be spoiled for choice when it comes to customising your 500: the various possible combinations of engines, versions, colours, wheels and accessories mean that you can configure your Fiat 500 in more than 500,000 different ways!"

500 wants youR AD

The first stage of the contest has ended, with over 3300 advertising ideas sent in for the launch campaign for the new 500! The various proposals range from ideas for viral and guerrilla marketing, to traditional advertising, press, television and radio, and many more besides. From 21st to 28th May visitors will be able to vote for their favourite from the finalists chosen by Fiat's international jury.