- “Abarth: The Pocket Rocket Takes Centre Stage” campaign to promote compact Italian automotive performance brand scoops gold award
- Fully organic, grassroots campaign achieves huge results
Dubai, UAE, 30th March 2022: Abarth Middle East took home the prestigious gold award for ‘Best B2C Campaign’ at the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) Regional Awards 2022, for the campaign “Abarth: The Pocket Rocket Takes Centre Stage”, in partnership with its agency Gambit Communications.
The powerful grassroots campaign saw the Abarth brand engage with talented content creators, Abarth community members, press experts, young opinion leaders, tastemakers and trend-setters representing an ethnically and gender diverse group to make an impact and achieve top of mind saturation among the general public.
The gold award win adds to a hugely successful awards show season for Abarth in the Middle East region, building on further recent wins at the Middle East Public Relations Association (MEPRA) Awards, where the brand swept the awards with two golds and a silver for ‘Best Campaign in UAE’, ‘Best Use of Digital PR’, and ‘Best Consumer Goods Campaign’, respectively.
An Italian performance car brand well-known in Europe for its long history of racing success, Abarth was well-positioned to build its brand recognition in the Middle East region. “Abarth: The Pocket Rocket Takes Centre Stage” was a 360-degree awareness-based integrated communications campaign which put this pocket rocket firmly in the limelight.
Commenting on the award win, Rakesh Nair, Managing Director for European Brands at Stellantis ME, said: “It has been a fantastic awards season for Abarth as our integrated communications approach really resonated with judges and audiences, who respected the brand’s efforts to engage with its audience at a grassroots level. We are so proud to be the outright gold winner in multiple categories that featured major rival brands. True to its racing history, Abarth remains synonymous with winning!”
The campaign covered many of Abarth’s initiatives throughout the region over the past year, including the ‘Abarth Toy Drive’ campaign where people could donate toys to children in need, in return for the opportunity to win a track experience with the exhilarating Abarth 595 Competizione at the Dubai Autodrome.
The campaign also leveraged the digital reach of social media influencers and credible brand enthusiasts, including the president of the Abarth Club in UAE, and a number of well-known local personalities and talented content creators.
Stellantis, the automotive corporation that owns Abarth, was also the most awarded automotive brand group on the night, winning another gold for ‘Best Corporate Social Responsibility Campaign’ with Peugeot for its ‘BUCKLE UP!’ road safety campaign.
The 2022 Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) Regional Awards are judged by a panel of journalists, experts and opinion-leaders from across the region with decades of industry experience between them, through a strict scoring and voting process.
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Stellantis
Stellantis N.V. (NYSE / MTA / Euronext Paris: STLA) is one of the world's leading automakers and a mobility provider. Its storied and iconic brands embody the passion of their visionary founders and today’s customers in their innovative products and services, including Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroën, Dodge, DS Automobiles, Fiat, Jeep®, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Ram, Vauxhall, Free2move and Leasys. Powered by our diversity, we lead the way the world moves – aspiring to become the greatest sustainable mobility tech company, not the biggest, while creating added value for all stakeholders as well as the communities in which it operates. For more information, visit www.stellantis.com
Abarth
It was in 1949 that Carlo Abarth, after a career racing motorcycles and cars, founded Abarth & C with Guido Scagliarini. The first vehicle produced was the 204 A, based on the Fiat 1100. It immediately won the 1100 Sport Championship as well as Formula 2. Alongside racing, the company started to produce tuning kits that improved the performance, power and speed of standard vehicles.
Over the course of the next two decades, Carlo Abarth’s performance modified cars achieved success in every competition and set many records, and the Abarth brand became synonymous with sport, tuning and performance.
Abarth’s union with Fiat came in 1971, with Fiat’s acquisition of Abarth & C S.p.A. Under Fiat ownership, Abarth became the Fiat Group's racing department, and went on to produce some of history’s most legendary racing machines, including the Fiat 124 Abarth Rally and 131 Abarth, and the Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo Group 5 racing car and the Lancia Rally 037 Group B rally car.
Press Contacts:
Reham Eldidi
Communications
Stellantis Middle East
+971 52 412 8095
reham.eldidi@stellantis.com
Ziad Ashkar
Account Manager
Gambit Communications
+971 55 7862682
Ziad@gambit.ae
