I recently stumbled upon Fiat USA's "Score a Scorpion" social media campaign and let's just say I was a little impressed. For those of you who are into cars, Fiat is an Italian marque that has recently returned to the US. Known for stylish but unreliable cars, Fiat's return after 27 years out of the market presents some unusual challenges. Especially given that Fiat specializes in small, gas-sipping compacts that Americans are typically not fond of.
The first Fiat advertising campaign that I ran into featured the Fiat 500 with J-Lo driving into her old hood. As she steps out of the Fiat 500 all I could think of was that J-Lo would NEVER be seen in a $16,000 car and driving herself. Her shoes probably cost more than that car! But yes, the Fiat 500 is a "cute" car, one better fit for the urban scene and more likely for women so this advert was probably on target for its audience. Nevertheless I wasn't sure how effective this campaign would be, at least for me.
Roll forward three months later and I get an update from Fiat USA on Facebook and it's titled, "Score a Scorpion". Total exact opposite of the J-Lo campaign. You've got a bad looking, special edition Fiat 500 decked out in black and red. Pumped up to 160 horsepower and built for performance, Abarth has been a high-performance tuner whose insignia is the Scorpion. Fiat USA puts out one clue every 3 or 4 days and your job is to find the Scorpion online. The first four clues are sort of simple and are good for entries into a branded merchandise giveaway. The last four are much harder and are for the Fiat 500 Abarth sweepstakes. The clues bring you to several of Fiat's social media profiles like the Tumblr blog, Twitter feed, Google+ page and their website to learn more about the history of the vehicle. And the clues will bring you to more entertaining websites like Top Speed, 0-60 Magazine and National Geographic. As you find and click on each scorpion, your "Score a Scorpion" registers the found clue and gives you another entry in the sweepstakes.
But yes, as people are looking for clues, their was a lot of online activity within their Facebook page, Fiat enthusiasts online and what have you. What I liked about this marketing campaign was:
* Fiat USA used the excitement of a limited edition product and giveaway, magnified by social media to generate online buzz and create long-term engagement for repeated exposure (one month).
* Fiat USA targeted Facebook users who had already shown some interest and were most likely to engage in the online scavenger hunt, and amplify the giveaway activities.
* The campaign was a nice mix of education and entertainment, requiring people to search for Fiat all over the Internet. And their partners also got great online exposure with the contest activities.
* Participants were led to Fiat USA's social media streams across Tumblr, Twitter, and Google+ and I'm sure some people subscribed to these properties for cross-marketing purposes.
* Fiat USA switched gears to show another side of their vehicle. From the stylish, female-centric J-Lo 500 to the hard-nosed, performance based Fiat 500, great re-positioning.
So what's the final tally? Fiat USA's Facebook page (as of February 2012) is showing 453,000+ Likes, 19,000+ Talking About's and for the Score a Scorpion app, 100,000 monthly users. If I had to guess at the cost of this campaign, we're looking at three Fiat 500 Abarth's ($22,000 MSRP), Fiat Abarth shwag (guessing $20,000) plus design costs for the Facebook app and leaving clues (guessing $25,000). Given that there was probably existing promotional materials for the Fiat Abarth, I doubt that they had create much new media/design for this online campaign.
Estimating a high-end cost of $150K for this month-long contest, you're talking about maybe a $1.50/engaged user, i.e. Score a Scorpion contestant. Not to mention all the other people who are seeing and hearing about Fiat and the contest in general. Plus the long-term activity generated by people who have subscribed to Fiat USA's other social media streams, and exposure for partners.
All-in-all not a bad deal for the price, don't you think? And while B2B certainly can not match the sexiness of a limited-edition sports car, I certainly think there are lessons to be learned here about how to leverage social media. Signing up for a booth at a tech event and sending three or four employees to man it would typically cost $50 - $100K and maybe generate 300 random email addresses. So where would you rather spend your money?
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