Web, art and advertising: Grande Punto MY 2008 ‘speaks’ to the young
 

Fiat has always been a byword for fun and innovation and approaches the world of the young by offering them good-looking, high-performing and safe cars while also exploring new areas of communication on the Internet, in art and in advertising. The Grande Punto MY 2008 is certainly no exception. For example, the model is one of the most frequently discussed cars among the on-line community, which particularly appreciates its capacity for personalization. This is also the background for the brand new site www.fiatpunto.it that is shortly to house a new project whose watchwords will be involvement, cooperation and dialogue, between fans, Fiat communities and experts and people from marketing, product development, Engineering & Design and Safety. Every one from inside or outside Fiat who shares the same passion for the Grande Punto MY 2008.

But the project is a new step forward in the Open Company approach taken by Fiat with the 500 (“500 wants you” platform) and Bravo (“quelli che Bravo” blog). The product managers have always been sensitive to input received from the community of fans. One example is the success scored by the “Grande Punto Day” event staged on 11 November 2007 at Balocco by Fiat together with the two biggest on-line clubs.

The platform was christened duePUNTOzero in homage to its social networking style. More specifically, the platform is made up of a social network where the main players are users, fans or owners, and an official blog where Fiat experts have their say. The site is extremely easy to use due to the application of tools that are already present on the Internet for the management of videos (YouTube) and photos (Flickr), RSS Feed for updates, ShareThis for circulation. With a view to the greatest possible cooperation and dialogue, all pages on the side, including the product pages written by the Fiat experts can also be commented on and may be voted on by users for the clarity and usefulness of their content. Registered users can also write articles or upload videos and images.
 

In addition to this innovative website, another campaign has been introduced that explores an area of communication never before embarked on by an automotive manufacturer: Sponsorship of “Scala Mercalli - Il terremoto creativo della Street Art Italiana”, the greatest exhibition of its kind to be staged in Italy on the phenomenon of street art and scheduled to take place from 20 May to 31 July 2008, at the Parco della Musica auditorium in Rome.

This project, unique of its kind, will see the participation of more than 50 artists, hundreds of works, dozens of giant paintings, sculptures of considerable scene-stealing impact and many designs created for the occasion. Amongst these, on 20 May – during the opening of the Garage Auditorium – the artist TvBoy painted a Grande Punto MY 08 live on air that will later be sold when the exhibition is over with the proceeds going to charity .

Lastly, to support the launch of the new car, a TV advertising spot has been produced that highlights the model's ability to stay one step ahead of the rest of its segment. In detail, the Grande Punto MY 2008 streaks over a strip of black asphalt in a thrilling contest, to the accompaniment of the music “Berta Filava” by Rino Gaetano. After a pair of straight runs, where the car shows of all the assertiveness and power of its styling, the car brakes suddenly and takes up a position lying across the road. The music stops, the film is caught in a moment of suspense, when the camera enters the car to close in on the dashboard, the new interior and two young people who are representative of the target audience.

The camera then pans on to the passenger, who turns and watches with apparent amusement as an infinite army of lights appears on the horizon. More than one hundred pairs of headlights belonging to an army of cars begin to career headlong towards the Grande Punto MY 2008: this is the climactic moment of the film. After a moment of suspense, the driver suddenly engages gear and the car sets off with a squeal of tyres. The screen goes black and a message appears: “it’s nice to be pursued”. The flight of the Grande Punto MY 2008 continues with a shift of scene that opens onto the final claim: “Always ahead. Punto”. The message fades out and the scene ends with the Fiat logo.