Fiat "cinquecento" 500 brings Italian style online and to the road

Fiat recently brought back one of the most loved cars in Europe in the 20th century - the 500 - with a great challenge

Indeed, the 500 is the car that put the impoverished post-war Italians on wheels. It soon became the symbol of Italy’s economic rebirth, then a design icon. It and the Vespa scooter are the best-known symbols of modern Italy. In re-creating the 500, Sergio Marchionne,the Canadian-Italian CEO of Fiat, had a delicate act to perform. The car had to be faithful to its design roots — a piece of rolling nostalgia — yet thoroughly modern and capable of selling in vast numbers. It had to be like the new Mini Cooper, which has sold a million copies since its relaunch in 2001. I believe that has been achieved and the design is truly expectational. With this launch Fiat hopes to emulate the past success of the 500 and unfortunately for time it will not be hitting North American showrooms.

Even more expectational is the site promoting the 500, in particular is the user driven flash-video based car configuration. The experience excites and fuels the passion for the 500 by allowing the user to truly get immersed into building their own customized 500. With some many features to choose from I found myself spending an hour collectively just playing around the site; would I want a the optional sunroof and what vintage feature would go with red?

By the time I departed from the experience my only negative was that I couldn't run down to dealer and drive one off the lot. Enjoy and have fun building your own 500!

http://www.fiat500.com/eng/

Sprint Ahead with Sprint Speed

A true labour of love for me personally, Sprint recently launched their new brand strategy in an effort to refocus their attention on become a leader in the industry by focusing their attention on driving their customers to increase their adoption of rich media and digital content include music, video and data on their mobile device.

The challenge was to overcome the highly negative customer perception of the Sprint brand, given Cingular's, now AT&T recent PR blitz with iPhone and Verizon and T-Mobile's excellent JD Power & Associates Customer Satisfaction results, Sprint had its work cut out for them.

In March 2007, San Fransisco based Goodby and Silverstein was awarded the challenge to transform the Sprint brand. Organic has been through several agency shuffles, prior to Goodby & Silverstein, we worked with TBWA\Chiat Day in Los Angeles and New York as the mass agency of record.

I was excited to work with Goodby as I knew their vision, leadership and creative insight would provide for an exciting partnership. After several months of strategic tweaking , customer persona workshops and many concepts we finally arrived at the idea that Sprint would offer their customers speed and allow them to be one step ahead of the pack. Thus, Sprint Ahead with Sprint Speed was born.

Below is a link to view our recently launched promotional site which incorporates all of the new brand elements including the light graffiti creative execution which is a truly refreshing approach for Sprint:

http://www.sprintahead.com/?id12=UHPCHP_Billboard_SprintAhead_LearnMore


This is a truly immersive user experience as the user drives their own experience on the site by discovering new features by clicking on the various hot-spots. The interface entices the user and creates a unique experience that doesn't become predictable. Some might argue that the navigation is too simple and lacks direction, however that is far from the case, our goal was give the user a warm feeling with the site. My mantra for this project was create an emotional connection with the user to build warmth, intrigue and respect for the brand.

I am proud that we achieved our objectives. When I compare what the competition is serving up now, Sprint truly is Ahead of the game.