Brief:
- To raise awareness of Piaggio as a brand leader
- To increase sales of Piaggio and Vespa scooters
- To increase awareness in the UK of the diverse range of transport needs that are met by the scooter and ultimately create market share for the Piaggio and Vespa models
- To introduce Piaggio/Vespa/Gilera scooters into the mainstream press and media, including television and radio
- To achieve co-marketing opportunities with recognised High Street brands
Strategy:
Promark analysed market trends and checked out a number of transport issues under consideration by the government. We realised that reliable scooters would sell if they became stylish because celebrities and high-profile people were seen riding them – but not just for glamorous or frivolous reasons, but for very sound practical ones: they saved time and money and were a solution to congested city traffic.
With no advertising budget and only a limited amount of promotional spend, the problem was to get celebrities to ride the scooters and convince them of their worth. Whoever we chose to feature would have to genuinely sing their (scooter) praises, so we needed them to have a love of Italy and style – someone who wanted La Dolce Vita here in London.
We also decided to run a fleet of scooters for press use, but to make the scooters available to a number of other contacts, such as photographers, fashion houses and clothing stores, to use as free point-of-sale display and photo shoot props. This link with high-profile fashion brands and high street stores led to joint promotions and displays at special customer evenings at retailers such as Harrods and Selfridges and this in turn led to working with Armani, Gucci and DKNY.
Parallel to this was an intense campaign supplying regular information and images to the media, resulting in substantial and sustained newspaper, TV and radio coverage.
At the same time we become heavily involved in the new government initiative TravelWise, working closely with the Birmingham City Council to get first council personnel mobile on Piaggio scooters, then to jointly promote with the BCC to the general public. This was to establish the scooters as an undeniably practical mode of transport, with credentials supported by a recognised impartial agency (BCC). Whatever we did in the celebrity and fashion arena, we needed to prove the long term viability of the scooter as a stylish, convenient form of personal transport and the new TravelWise initiative proved to be a very effective way to do this.
This initiative also allowed Piaggio literature (80,000) to be distributed to member companies in the Midlands area, such as NHT Hospitals, Universities, Royal Mail and the Rover Group. Joint exhibition stands and competitions were organised at subsequent British Motor Shows, introducing the Piaggio range of scooters to a previously predominately motor car audience.
Mindful of safety messages to the general public, Piaggio backed a comprehensive School Road Safety Campaign, which introduced our 50cc models to a young age group in a responsible manner.
Dealers are particularly important to Promark and are key to achieve market success. Without a network of proactive, approachable dealers all of the advertising and publicity would be for nothing – the dealer is the person who completes the sale and clinches the deal. Promark worked hard to establish a close working relationship with the dealers in order to feed ideas to each other and to identify promotions which would have practical result.
Success: Piaggio unit sales increased from 500 (1992) to 15,000 (1999)
Piaggio end 1999 as UK market leaders in the scooter sector with 28% market share.
Editorial coverage: if the equivalent editorial space Promark achieved had been purchased at the prevailing advertising rate, the value rose from £102,000 in 1993 to £900,000 worth by end 1997.
Promark Public Relations & Marketing- Call us 01293 823890
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