Episode 145 - Fiat “Operation No Grey” Reviewed by Pernod Ricard, Reckitt and GWI
🚗 What’s more fun and colourful than a brightly coloured Fiat? In this week’s episode, Fiat has decided to capitalise on their Mediterranean sunny image and claim that they’ll stop making grey cars. “Operation No Grey” features the brand’s Global President Olivier François getting dunked into a vat of orange paint and celebrating a very specific bit of consumer insight.
But is this ad chosen by Contagious and created by Leo Burnett Turin running a bit long and… off topic? Does it do enough for the brand image? What could it have done better, beyond the initial laughs?
Our guests this week had mixed opinions. Watch the latest episode and hear from Julie Pender (Interim Global Marketing, Beefeater Gin at Pernod Ricard), Mari Saona (Senior Brand Manager at Reckitt), and Vic Miller (VP PR & Communications at GWI).
Episode 145 - Fiat “Operation No Grey” Reviewed by Pernod Ricard, Reckitt and GWI
Transcript is automatically generated, so not perfect, but you get the idea!
Tom Ollerton 0:00
Hello and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. This is a weekly show where brands watch other brands' ads.
Tom Ollerton 0:24
My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative, the creative effectiveness platform, and this week, we have a really exciting bit of creative that we're going to share with you. But before we get to this week's ad, let's meet this week's guests.
Julie Pender 0:37
Hi, everyone. I'm Julie Pender. I'm Drink Strategist and a Brand Builder, currently working with Pernod Ricard on Beefeater Gin.
Mari Saona 0:44
I'm Mari Saona, Senior Brand Manager for Vanish and Calgon in Reckitt Spain.
Vic Miller 0:50
Hi, I'm Vic Miller, and I'm VP of PR and Comms at GWI.
Tom Ollerton 0:53
Who else do you need? Who else do you need? What a panel... Let's see this week's ad.
Tom Ollerton 1:16
On a scale of one to five, vote with your fingers. One, two, three... I wasn't expecting that. A four, a four, and a two. So Julie, can you tell us anything more about the wider campaign? Why are they doing this and how you responded to it the first time you saw it?
Julie Pender 3:04
I actually really liked the ad. I thought that there was a lot of Italian lifestyle kind of coming into it. Very kind of bright, bold Mediterranean colors. Basically, evoke this feeling around you of being in Italy and then talk about the fact that they're never going to do a grey car again. And the idea that all the other car companies can own having grey cars, but clearly that's not a very fun color to bring this kind of Fiat feeling to the consumer. So they're going to not do it anymore. And then, of course, take their CEO and dip him into a giant tub of orange paint, which I thought was super funny and made me laugh.
Vic Miller 3:41
I liked it. And visually, I think it's really nice. I just felt it was a bit pointless. It's quite long. I can sort of see it working more for cinema, but visually, it's really nice. But the bit with it dunking him into the orange tank just felt really long and drawn out. For me, the thing that's really missing is where are these beautiful colored cars that are on offer? It's just like that's the thing that visually, as a potential consumer, I want to say is like, if you're not doing grey cars, what are you doing? And I don't know, it's nice, but I don't think it hits the spot for me.
Julie Pender 4:13
I think they're trying to make the color orange pop and there's definitely like a bit of a stick at the other car companies and they're trying to... I think they're trying to build their distinctiveness on being that sunshiny, super fun brand. I think there's a huge consumer insight in terms of why people buy Fiat... Right, I don't think they buy Fiats for performance. I don't think they buy Fiats because they're going to get amazing mileage. I think they buy Fiats because they're fun, and I think that's what this is pulling on.
Mari Saona 4:40
I don't mind the frivolity of it. And that it, but... maybe it doesn't have much of a point beyond, you know, is aspirational. It's fun, it's colorful. I'm thinking of the colors of gelato and I'm associating them to Fiat. Almost a bit Vespa-like. It could have done with a bit more branding, maybe seeing some of the Fiat colors we all know and love zipping around in the background of this cute Italian city, right? I do think it needs a bit more branding because I don't know who exactly the target audience is for this, but they may not have enough clues to know that we're in Fiat land. If you haven't been exposed to decades of Fiat advertising before, you might need a bit more help to get to that moment.
Vic Miller 5:26
I feel as if it's meant to be slightly for the younger audience, perhaps? Like that sort of pop of color, like being a fun brand and differentiating from other car companies. I get that. But then they've got this kind of... And like, he's really impressive, I think his name's Oliver Francois, the CEO. But they have got a middle-aged white man being dunked into a tank of colored paint. It's like, if that is the target audience, does it work? I had to Google him and find out who he was and I found it from their Instagram account, I got the concept of it. But that's for advertisers, isn't it? It's not for the consumer that's going to buy a colorful car.
Julie Pender 5:59
Now, you've got to wait for a long time for the payoff on it, don't you? To understand this bit. I watched it several times because I was actually looking for any other Fiat cars. I seriously did dive into this a little too much because I was like, are they in the background? Because there is no Fiat appearing at all. And you have to wait a very long time to get the payoff, if you miss the subtitle in the beginning in terms of who he is. What I'm hoping, though, is that when they executed in market, that they bought media around it that actually supported this as a long film and maybe did some great short 30-second cuts and maybe some digital content that made it more engaging and hopefully brought it into the dealerships, right? Brought it into the actual place where consumers are and did a really clever buy to dip something maybe in their dealerships or show that orange new vehicle dipped.
Mari Saona 6:47
I do really want to see this campaign in all its glory. Three-sixty. What's the skippable online version of this? Because obviously, nearly 2 minutes, no one's going to sit through that unless you're at the cinema.
Tom Ollerton 7:01
Did someone at that agency go, "Hey man, everyone's cars are grey. Let's not make grey cars. Can someone ring the brand and tell them stop making grey cars." That never happened. Did they just decide on stopping grey cars because they're really expensive? And someone said, "Let's flip it." And say, "Oh, we only make colourful cars." So where did that, how do you think that came about?
Vic Miller 7:18
I think it's less about specifically people wanting X colour of car. You know, they can have consumer insights, for example, Italy is the favorite travel destination for an audience between 22 and 35, if that's what they're looking at. And I think some of this feels, because some of their messaging on social is about being positive and bright and colorful, I wondered if there's more of a play on that kind of positive outlook on life. This feels like there's a few themes coming through here that they might have taken from consumer insights from that set audience. So they're looking at things that appeal to that audience.
Mari Saona 7:51
I know the theory for that, Tom. The cynical, like, brand manager in me said, "Okay, the grey cars aren't selling very well. Let's just delist them in style." You know, it could be the world's most jazzy, you know, discontinuation of a color ever and, if anything, the value of those remaining cars in market is going to go up.
Tom Ollerton 8:15
Okay, so you're going to go back to your teams inspired or not by this ad... What are you going, what are you going to take back home with this? What are you gonna learn from it?
Mari Saona 8:23
For me, it's the simplicity. So they went for fun, colorful, "We're Italian," and that's it. And I like that they weren't tempted to sneak in any technical features or, or mumbo jumbo about the new module. They just kept it simple and I liked that.
Vic Miller 8:41
I would go back and say, you can have a really nice creative idea, but you are still ultimately selling a car. Where is the beautiful color that is on offer? And then it's like, how's that going to... Maybe we're still going to see the execution of this? Maybe they're going to do a great job of bringing it into, to other elements. But I feel like this one's just, I don't know, this one feels like it falls a bit flat for me.
Julie Pender 9:00
I'm going to sit in the middle of both of you in terms of the point of view. I did like it. I like the music. I love an Italian accent, and I wasn't put off by the CEO, and I thought it was quite, as a marketer, I was like, "What good value! You didn't have to pay any usage fees to an actor." But overwhelmingly, I still watched it. I laughed, I smiled. I knew it was Fiat. And I enjoyed it as a result.
Tom Ollerton 9:23
Would you sign off this campaign in its current form? Yes or no? One, two, three...
Brilliant, there you have it. We'll see you all next week.
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