Examples of great campaigns catch our eyes daily. But few can truly be described as innovative, and genuinely ‘outside the box’.
Fiat’s latest effort to drive interest on social media is something of an anomaly then. Because, whilst other firms clamour for the next big selling point set to make consumers feel the need to follow their brand, the Italian car giant is quite literally doing the exact opposite.
The PR push surrounding the company’s Abarth 500 model may seem strange to some. Track down the associated handle on Twitter, and when you choose to ‘Follow’ the request is immediately blocked. The account’s follower count will read 1, before returning back to 0. The point being that it’s simply ‘too fast to follow’ as seen by a direct message you receive. What a stand out way to deliver a key message about your product!
Of course this isn’t a good blueprint for gathering in depth data on fan behaviour. But that’s not always the most important aspect of marketing a product. Adweek and Mashable, amongst other titles, reported favourably on the stunt, giving significant exposure to the Abarth, meanwhile anyone with first hand experience of rejection will certainly remember the experience.
From a professional perspective, it’s fascinating to see the basic social media rulebook being ripped up, or at least read in reverse. Since the earliest days of these platforms the principles have focused on increasing exposure by building up a community. A novel concept on behalf of Fiat then, only time will tell if this proves successful in the long term, and even then due to the nature of the stunt it’s going to be hard figuring out exactly how much impact it had. Still, it has achieved the first rule of PR- getting people talking about the client, and leaves an indelible memory of the Fiat Abarth being ‘fast’. Bravo.