Chrysler Group’s Fiat brand plans to reveal a new campaign early next month, the head of the Fiat brand in North America said during an interview at the New York International Auto Show last week.
Ads for the brand should begin airing on television during the first week of May and will be supported with digital and social media including YouTube, Tim Kuniskis, Fiat North America CEO, told The Detroit News.
“The absolute key to our advertising is to be different so that people remember, because we’re a small brand,” he said.
Currently, Fiat mostly shows its “immigrant” commercial — in which Fiat 500s drive into the ocean and then are shown driving on U.S. streets — on television.
“It’ll be a good lead-in to our (Fiat 500) L campaign,” Kuniskis said of the new effort, which will have multiple variations. “It’ll have the same look and feel as our L campaign. We’ve had the immigrant spot…we’ve had it out there for a few months now, so it’s time to refresh.”
Fiat 500 Abarth ads are also likely part of the mix.” Abarth allows us to be somewhat schizophrenic,” Kuniskis said. “You can have a regular 500 ad that’s very mainstream, that we can show it at 8 o’clock on NBC — and then we can do something really edgy with Abarth and run that on sports, late night, things like that.”
Fiat dealers are just receiving the new 2013 Fiat 500 Abarth Cabrio turbocharged convertible and the electric 2013 Fiat 500e will begin hitting dealerships in California this month, Kuniskis told the paper. The bigger 500 L and 500 L Trekking will hit dealers this summer.
The new models should help Fiat continue to add sales in the U.S., Fiat says. Through March, Fiat has sold 9,612 cars in the U.S., up 9% from the same period a year ago. Fiat sold just shy of 44,000 cars in the U.S. last year, and nearly 20,000 in 2011.
See The Detroit News story here.
