Reintroduced Vespa Takes New Turn, Guerrilla Effort Shoots for the Hip - ad campaign - Brief Article

Brandweek, May 28, 2001 by Karl Greenberg

Teams of 12 models clad in riding gear will visit cafes and colleges in Los Angeles, Houston and other cities starting June 15. Their mission: Look cool, sip coffee and give a tacit pitch for their preferred mode of transportation, the Vespa scooter.

Along with a Gen Y-skewing $8 million print campaign breaking today, the street teams are part of an effort to bring an aura of cool back to the motor-scooter, which was revered as a 1960s icon before being reintroduced to the U.S. last fall after a 20-year hiatus.

Since that reintroduction, parent company Piaggio USA, Newport Beach, Calif., has opened 10 scooter "boutiques" around the country replete with espresso and pastries, and has launched TV ads with the tag, "Vespa is back."

The second wave of that campaign, also via De Piano Group, New York, will revolve around the tag "Vespa, the fun and only" and show black-and-white photos of 20-ish models posing on the scooters. Placement includes upscale magazines in Miami, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco as the stores expand.

Agency president Marco De Plano said the branding campaign will give way to more vehicle-specific ads, "As the network of stores grows so will [Piaggio's] commitment to advertising and marketing," he said.

The street campaign, via Nico Network, Los Angeles, will target some of the boutique cities. "It's a subtle form of guerrilla marketing," said Renee Tuzee, vp-marketing and dealer development for Piaggio.

Tuzee said the company's boutiques will sell only Vespa products, including the two scooters-the ET2 and ET4--plus accessories like helmets and Vespa-branded watches, historical books, posters, and vintage items.

Vespa this year will also launch its own clothing label, via J. Crew, with a new line debuting every six months. A store in Denver is booking Vespa-riding tours of Italy.

Piaggio pulled out of the U.S. in the early 1980s because its scooters couldn't meet emissions standards, but the new models do. The ET2 ($2,750) and ET4 ($3,950) can reach speeds of 30 and 60 miles per hour, respectively.