Fiat promotes unprecedented crossmedia explosion starring Elvis Presley to launch campaign for new Fiat Strada

Icons are timeless, but bringing them to modern days in a contemporary manner requires a plan that talks to current times. With that mindset, Fiat introduces the integrated campaign for the launch of the New Fiat Strada, an icon among pick-up trucks, featuring Elvis Presley, the King of Rock, in a completely innovative way. With the concept “New Fiat Strada. The legend has outdone itself,” Fiat has developed a strategy – in collaboration with the Globo Group (the largest media and communications conglomerate in Brazil and Latin America) and advertising agency Leo Burnett TM Brazil – that empowers the audience and brings people into the narrative, before leading to an explosion of multiplatform content.

To ensure that the New Fiat Strada will become the talk of the town in an organic way, on Friday night the brand hosted a lively videoconference that brought together Brazilian media personalities who are very prominent on Brazilian TV and social media, such as Fábio Porchat, Vitão, Thaeme, Carol Barcellos, and Joaquim Lopes.

After the digital influencers played the video “The Legend” during the livecast, it premiered on all of the Globo platforms in an innovative, crossmedia placement. An additional strategy was created to include all social networks, among other players, in order to promote an emblematic arrival of the new Fiat Strada to Brazil.

“For this important launch, we created a full ecosystem to show how a legend can outdo itself. In an impressive way, we showed how the customer always comes first for Fiat; we even shared the video with our customers before it was released on traditional media. After we got everyone talking about the New Fiat Strada on digital, we promoted this entire multichannel explosion that introduces, in an integrated manner, the versatility, strength, and technology of this car, which was conceived to exceed customer expectations,” said Frederico Battaglia, Brand Marketing Communication Director for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCS) in Latin America.

Video

Backstage, we see someone taking confident steps and the question: “Is the legend back?” With an energetic rhythm, the answer “The Legend has outdone itself” appears, and we see a rejuvenated Elvis Presley performing in a show, until he surprises everyone by leaving the scene on a red New Fiat Strada. The video, produced in partnership with Alice Filmes, then proceeds to show Elvis driving through recording studios and inviting cover artists to take a ride with him, fighting samurais, driving past a full moon with the back of the truck loaded, crossing a desert, and finishing the cinematic trip in grand style at the launch event for the New Fiat Strada.

To the rhythm of “Blue Suede Shoes,” the production, shot in a long take, uses a seductive and agile approach to showcase the main features of the New Fiat Strada: innovative design, more interior space with 4 doors and 5 seats, wireless connectivity, greater cargo capacity, and advanced traction system (TC+).

Watch the full 2-minute video in this link:

“It’s an honor to contribute to the campaign for Fiat’s main product launch this year, a campaign that’s on a par with the history of this inspiring brand. It is a glimmer of hope, in these trying times, that creativity, production excellence, and these two legends – the Fiat Strada and Elvis –, will never die,” comments Pedro Prado, Leo Burnett TM Creative VP. “Creating a legend takes time. For Fiat Strada, it has meant leading the segment for 20 years. In order to recreate Elvis, we worked hard for many months, adapting, perfecting, and evolving. It’s an intense effort that is only possible when client, agency, and production house speak the same language,” complements Tomas Correa, the agency’s Creative Director. 

Production

Adhering to high safety standards and filmed in February 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic reached Brazil, the production involved more than 600 people, including staff and cast, three locations, and six shooting dates. In order to faithfully reproduce Elvis’ mannerisms, appearance, and features, the production relied on technology and the participation of one of the rock icon’s best doubles: Dean Z, from Missouri, U.S., who won a global competition promoted by the Presley family in 2013. We then replaced Dean Z’s face with a fully CGI likeness based on real scenes from Elvis shows and films from 1968.

“Creating the perfect environment to host all of the project’s creativity and special post-production requirements in order to ensure the best possible Elvis on the screen, in the most seamless and natural way, was one of our great challenges,” highlights Wal Tamagno, partner and Executive Producer at Alice Filmes.

Crossmedia campaign

In order to introduce the campaign in an integrated manner and engender a sense of belonging amongst the audience, Fiat used dynamic storytelling to develop a strategy with Brazilian influencers hailing from different backgrounds. Each influencer brought their fan base aboard and generated engagement around the New Fiat Strada.

In an integrated fashion, as the subject was taking social media by storm, the New Fiat Strada campaign had its first multiplatform placement, during an exclusive commercial break of Jornal Nacional (the country’s main newscast program), and was simultaneously replicated throughout the Globo platform, including Globosat, digital, and on-demand channels.

The campaign will remain live until August, with a full communication ecosystem that includes videos of different lengths, special vignettes, assets for specific stages of the sales funnel, product placement, and the full media and content chain.

“In our constant search for innovation and performance, we always try to understand the right product to guarantee the best result for our customers. In this partnership with Fiat and the Leo Burnett TM agency, we have built a strategy of great impact, through Globo Max, which allows us to speak to more than 40 million people in a minute. It is an extraordinary potential, based on data, and that makes perfect sense for this launch so important for the brand, impacting different consumers on all Globo platforms. ", he comments Eduardo Petribu, Business Director for Finance and Auto at Globo

In order to bring the content to the right audience at the right time, we developed special assets for the official Fiat channels on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Grouped under the “work” and “play” themes, the posts establish conversations both with New Fiat Strada buyers who need the truck for work and with those who are primarily interested in using it for leisure.

Learn more about Fiat initiatives on digital channels:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fiatbr

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fiatbr/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FiatBR

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/fiat