A Real Gasser

Fiat Automóveis S.A. in Brazil was looking to do a lot of things when it challenged my agency, Rocha Azevedo Marketing Promocional, to create a marketing blitz for its redesigned Marea sedan and station wagon. The car maker was looking for a campaign that would create buzz, drive trial and, ultimately, sell more cars.

Rocha Azevedo (now The Marketing Store Worldwide Brazil) developed a campaign targeted to men 35 and older that could meet all three objectives.

Called Impeccable, the program centered on the giveaway of a premium CD containing music by well-known Brazilian singers Milton Nascimento and Gilberto Gil. The CD was part of a broad endorsement package Fiat negotiated with the two singers — who had never worked together before — that also included participation in the promotion, the recording of new tracks, and an exclusive concert for the brand’s customers. (Nascimento and Gil even wrote poems that were used in the campaign’s collateral.)

The CDs were distributed to potential customers through direct mailings and inserts in a variety of consumer magazines. Copy encouraged recipients to visit a Fiat dealership for a chance to win a Marea or tickets to the concert.

What made the incentive unique was that recipients were required to bring the CD with them to be played during the test drive. When the drive was nearly over, the salesperson would skip to the final track, on which was an audio code that could be matched to a printed code located under the car’s visor to win the car. Everyone who took a test drive won concert tickets, and was allowed to enter a secondary sweepstakes giving away a second Marea.

Driving Duties

The idea for the giveaway came out of a meeting Fiat held with its agencies at which company officials told our account executives that the CD player was one of the redesigned Marea’s top new features. Thus, it was logical to use a premium that would highlight it.

Fiat was so impressed with the concept that it turned responsibility for all execution — including the media advertising normally handled by an agency of record — over to Rocha Azevedo. That way, we would be sure to present a consistent, integrated message throughout all campaign components.

The effort also included an aggressive, two-part program for sales force incentives. Motivation plans targeted individual salespeople as well as higher-level managers and dealerships as a whole — thereby rewarding both the individual and the team.

The first half of the program involved mystery shoppers, trained by Fiat, who visited dealerships to test salespeople and managers on their technical knowledge of the Marea — as well as to assess their ability to service customers and negotiate sales. Those deemed to have “impeccable” knowledge or sales skills received cash prizes in the form of debit cards redeemable through ATMs.

In the second portion, Fiat assigned points to salespeople based on their performance and managers based on results from all their direct reports. Each month, the top point-getters in each group earned cash cards. At the end of the campaign, the highest sellers received four-day trips to Brazil’s luxurious Comandatuba Island, located in Northwest Bahia.

Media advertising, Internet marketing, and an assortment of P-O-P materials in dealerships (including banners, standees, and ballot boxes for the sweeps) helped get the word out beyond the consumers who received the CDs.

And boy, did the word get out. More than 22,100 CD recipients visited dealers to test drive a Marea, a total that surpassed the campaign’s goal by nearly 15 percent. What’s more, 3,000 of them — nearly 14 percent — purchased a car, which helped the brand achieve a 20-percent sales increase during the promotional period.