Fiat taking page from Nike to build buzz with surprise releases

Nike routinely sets the shoe world ablaze with excitement when it does "shock drops" on hot items such as Air Jordan sneakers with no advance notice on its app. These surprise releases kick-start a flurry of consumers trying to get their hands on the shoes before the official release date. During the frenzy, some brag on social media that they snagged a pair before the inevitable sellout. Generating hype around spontaneous shoe purchases is one thing, but can it work for a $34,000 car? Fiat will apply a similar "drop" method to upcoming versions of its 500e. The tiny electric vehicle arriving this quarter — a redesign of the version sold in the U.S. previously — will be the brand's only U.S. offering going forward. Fiat's North America head, Aamir Ahmed, said the 500e isn't a traditional vehicle, so the brand isn't banking its future on run-of-the-mill TV ad campaigns. It's looking to tap into the fashionable energy that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles sought to leverage more than a decade ago when relaunching the Italian brand in the U.S. "We're going to more closely align ourselves with fashion and apparel in how we launch vehicles," Ahmed told Automotive News. "That's done for a reason, because that lends itself better to a digital campaign than what we've done in terms of an auto show. I can't afford to do an auto show reveal every few months to introduce a new version of the car, right? It's not sustainable. So what we're going to do is we're going to continue to drop vehicles. We're going to find creative ways to do that digitally." Ahmed, who took charge of Fiat in North America last summer, said the brand doesn't plan to follow norms. Ahmed has spoken with Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares and global Fiat CEO Olivier Francois about ways to be creative with the 500e. Fiat is leaning into the digital realm with its new Fiat Live Store that lets consumers buy a car without visiting a dealership. The experience offers consultations with a Fiat Genius throughout the process. The idea took inspiration from Apple, which uses the "genius" moniker for its store employees. "Mr. Tavares, Olivier and I have talked extensively about trying new things and seeing what works because we have such a neat brand to deal with," Ahmed said. "What we want to do is be hypersensitive on the digital marketing side of it and use as much data as we can to find the right places to sell this vehicle and go after the right types of people to buy this vehicle." Ahmed had a history with Fiat before he took the reins. In his first stint with the company, known as Chrysler Group when he joined in 2011, he was on the Uconnect infotainment team as Fiat vehicles transitioned to that system. Ahmed, a second-generation Indian American, spent winter and summer breaks in India growing up. Some of his earliest memories of the brand were seeing Fiat taxis at the airport in Mumbai. Ahmed said the goal isn't to reintroduce the brand to American consumers. He feels Fiat may have run into trouble because "it was almost forcing too much Italian into the conversation." Americans already equate the 500's design with Italy, Ahmed said, so now the brand aims to craft a story around how good of a car the 500e is. He has been driving a 500e through Michigan's winter for several weeks, already racking up more than 700 miles and getting through a recent storm without difficulty, he said. Ahmed said the 500e, which has a 149-mile range, will be one of the most affordable EVs on the market. He expects many to be sold to households that have several other vehicles, with owners using the 500e for shorter trips when they want to leave their larger gasoline vehicle in the garage. Francois previously said the brand won't push for big volumes of the 500e. Ahmed said that approach doesn't relieve any pressure on him to perform but means the key performance indicators will go beyond mere sales numbers. "We need to make sure that we deliver on what the brand promises, and that's joy and happiness and love and making sure the car manifests all that," Ahmed said. "I spend all of my time making sure that the customer experience is perfect."

Fiat taking page from Nike to build buzz with surprise releases

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