Advertising Case Study

Advertising Campaign Case Study: Fiat Multipla.

The fiat Multipla was a ‘unique’ looking car (as illustrated above) in the MPV sector that offered a lot of practicality and more so than the vast majority of its rivals due to its large width and the 3+3 seating layout that the large width allowed for. This gave it much more luggage space than any other MPVs that would be carrying 6 people as any other MPVs would have the back row of seats in the boot, so even if they were folded away, they couldn’t carry 6 people and retain adequate luggage space. The Multipla was certainly an innovative car to the point where Fiat experimented with making a Petrol-Electric hybrid version before any other manufactures bought a hybrid to the market. They also made a version of the Multipla that ran on LPG gas – an alternative fuel source that pre-dates the wide use of electric cars that we see today.

The Multipla was introduced in 1999, so it was before the age of social media and only just as the internet was starting to become more widely known with most households still not having any internet-connected computers at all. Therefore, no social media marketing could be done like it could now as Facebook, for example, had not been founded for another 5 years, by which time, the car was more than halfway through its production life and by the time Facebook was widely used by individuals and businesses, the car was nearing the end of its production life.

One of the methods that were used, however, was TV advertising. They produced a 30 second advert and a 60 second advert, both focusing on the 3+3 seating layout and the practicality it provided. They also featured F1 driver Michael Schumacher who would appear in many other Fiat adverts throughout the next few years. Another TV advert was made a few months later which made use of popular music and featured the car driving on a warm spring day whilst the cameras moved through the car's interior to exhibit how much space there is inside. It was edited into a 30-second advert and a 45-second advert.

 

Above: 2 stills from the 2^nd TV advert, showing the cars radical styling, inside and out.

Another method they used was radio advertising. They produced a radio advert with the tagline ‘Make way for your friends’, again boasting its 3+3 seating layout.

Most of the advertising done, however, was in the form of print, with advertising products being made for use in automotive magazines, newspapers and on billboards. Most of the adverts poke fun at the cars unique styling and incited customers into standing out from the crowd.

One of fiat’s biggest decisions with the Multpla marketing was to tailor their marketing specifically to each of the different European countries they were targeting. They marketed different advertising to different countries and at different times. Italy got the Schumacher TV advert in November 1998, the billboard posters in July-August 1999 and the 2^nd TV advert in February 2000. France got the Schumacher TV advert in January 1999, and it was supported by some France-only print adverts. Then, from April to June, they ran a second billboard and print campaign exclusive to France and repeated it from September to November. They then ran a TV & radio campaign in February 2000. Germany played a key role in the launch of the Multipla in Europe. Michael Conrad & Leo Burnett, Frankfurt, created the entire Schumacher campaign with an overall budget of 10.2 million. Therefore, Germany got its own adverts which highlighted the unusual styling with a tagline that said, “There is a norm for everything -but exceptions do exist.” Also, they ran a national weekend test drive promotion exclusive to Germany that bought in 3,500 potential customers into dealerships to look at the car. In the Netherlands, Fiat launched the multpla to the Amsterdam motor show In February 1999 where many journalists were attending and saw the car on display. They then carried out joint promotions with local dealers, the McDonald's burger chain and the electronics manufacturer Philips. It supplied Multplas for the Dutch government's daily commuting car-pooling project. Billboard and print advertisements were also developed. The marketing manager of company-owned distributor ‘Fiat Auto Nederland’, Jan-Daan Berkhout was quoted as saying “We wanted to create public interest wherever possible for a new and unknown concept. We had to find out what sort of customers would buy a Multipla. In the end, they are either looking for family functionality, or they are seeking an avant-garde model. In Austria, Fiat ran a 'Multipla Marathon' that involved people sitting in the cars for 10 hours each day, with only 15-minute breaks for lunch being allowed. The contest ran for three months and received widespread publicity on Austrian television news programs. In the UK, adverts focused heavily on the radical styling and were targeted towards the press for printed adverts and posters for billboards with taglines such as “Stand out from the crowd, then offer them a lift.” 

Above: One of the adverts printed in the British newspapers

They also tried out direct marketing before the age of wide-spread marketing emails, the product they made was a mailing that described the Multipla as 'roomy, practical and the first minivan with attitude and a sense of humour.' It was sent via post to 40,000 profiled consumers. It was dropped within a few days of the Multipla being named car of the year in the BBC Top Gear Awards 2000. The Multipla had total sales of 36,812 units in western Europe in the year of 1999. The multipla stayed in production until 2010, receiving a substantial face-lift in 2004 that made the car look much more conventional than the original design.

Sources: Automotive News Europe, Adeevee