News December 19 2006

Fiat 500 is “due” in nine months

Today, exactly nine months before the launch, Fiat is launching a new competition to announce the debut of the Fiat 500 on September 15, 2007 - known as “Baby Boom”, it gives expectant mothers who think their baby may be born on the same day the car launches the chance to win one!

The only requirement for participation in the final draw is that the child’s date of birth must coincide with the date the car is launched and – yes – the competition is open to residents of Australia since the car will be sold here. So if you – or someone you know – is in this happy position you (or they) need to go to the www.fiat500.com website and register for a chance to get the car.

Fiat is bringing all its creativity to bear in the launch of the successor to the original 500 or ‘cinquecento’ – and, in conjunction with the Leo Burnett Torino and Art agencies is running all sorts of online and viral promotions of the new model.

The website www.fiat500.com has been particularly successful with about 14,750,000 page views, over 2,397,000 visits, almost 1,875,000 unique visitors and more than 29,300 registered users (a bit better than Italiancar).

Visitors have submitted over 166,500 configuration suggestions for the new car and 22,480 suggestions have been submitted through the Concept Lab. The stats continue - 682 contributions to “500ology”, 1,262 mascots sent in, 1,456 jingles composed and 1,443 MP3s downloaded, 1,057 drawings for Designboom and 20 proposed homepages. And there’s still 9 months to go.

In addition to the Baby Boom competition, visitors to the site can express their creative ideas with the “500 Sticker Art Contest”, a competition that is open to all graphic designers, street artists, tattoo makers, freestylers, food designers and other visual artists.

Users of the site will select the five finalists for the best customisation for the car exterior, and the winner will receive a “500 wants you” gold ingot.

With the new 500 Fiat is looking to live up to its declared philosophy: “a car for the people, born from people’s dreams”.

© italiancar.net 19/12/06