Fiat Taps Into Nostalgia and Elvis Presley for 500 US Launch

1957 may be most closely identified with the '57 Chevy, but Chrysler marketers are going back to that year to promote the new Fiat 500 in America.

They're treading carefully, having been questioned for emphasizing a repositioning of the Chrysler brand, via the “Imported from Detroit” campaign that kicked off at this year's Super Bowl, over touting their first new model in a long while, the Chrysler 200. While they won’t say it, one reason is that the car is basically a re-skinned Chrysler Sebring and wasn’t all that boast-worthy, compared with much of the competition these days.

For the Fiat brand as it re-enters the United States in a big way, the story is different. By all accounts, the new Fiat 500 is a high-quality sparkplug, popular in Europe, and it should get a strong reception once it’s widely available in the United States at a time of stubbornly high gasoline prices. Nevertheless, Fiat is emphasizing brand over its 500 subcompact so far. The reasons, this time, are different.

Fiat — which now owns Chrysler, of course — is only slowly making the tiny car available in the United States, rolling it out to more and more of the eventual total of 130 Chrysler dealers who are building separate spaces in their facilities to showcase the 500 and future Fiat models.

The Fiat brand has some work to do in terms of making itself familiar to Americans again. Fiat left the U.S. market in shame after quality problems undermined its image in the Seventies and Eighties. Of course, the Millennial generation that Fiat really would like to reach with the 500 is hardly aware of the automaker’s previous problems. But the Fiat brain trust believes strongly in rationalizing and establishing brands as the way to long-term success in any auto market.

Fiat’s initial flight of TV advertising, which begins today, is a nostalgic TV spot (called "Drive-In") that goes back to 1957, the year Fiat debuted:

The description on the new spot:

"Simply More" defines the FIAT 500 as everything you need and nothing you don't. It represents the notion that the simple things in life are treasures, alongside the thought that the richness and fullness of a life well-lived is defined by one's view of self expression. The commercial features "Jailhouse Rock," made famous by Elvis Presley in 1957, the same year FIAT debuted the original 500 to the world.

Social media is also a big part of this new campaign, particularly essential “when the brand starts to build and grow in a new country,” as Laura Soave, North American head of the Fiat brand, tells Ad Age.

Soave’s boss, Olivier Francois, just became head of the Fiat brand last week, in an unveiling of Fiat’s new global management structure including Chrysler, after he served as Fiat CMO and head of the Chrysler brand. With the success of the “Imported from Detroit” effort that he oversaw, at least it’s clear that Fiat executives understand their favorite new market.

Below, listen to Soave explain more of the thinking behind the brand's new Fiat 500 campaign.