To gear the Fiat brand towards the younger market (15-30 years, A/B classes) and launch the Idea Adventure car, in an new and unique form, (valuing design, handling and innovation). Research commissioned by Fiat together with the target audience indicated that 51% of youths said that the Web improved their form of relating to each other, 52% played leisure video games, 59% had blog contacts, 51% fotologs and 45% used Orkut. With this information, Fiat decided to launch the car in a unique way, aiming to create a qualified database of younger public who didn´t relate to the brand.

An ARG (Alternate Reality Game) was created to generate a unique experience and to launch the car. The objective of the game was to find a lost sculpture. Players had to solve puzzles, virtually cross the country inside the car and find clues hidden everywhere: the web, television, mobile phones and magazines. The characters came to life through the internet: they had Orkut profiles, e-mail, MSN, blog and interacted with the public. Advertising was made using TV spots and MTV merchandising, displays in LAN Houses, online campaigns, SMS, web guerrilla advertising and prizes: car (Idea Adventure) iPod and Adventure Kit.

During five weeks, 879,307 users involved themselves in the project and 62,475 played the game (average 90mins interaction with the car) 31 communities created by the public on Orkut, totalling approximately 70,000 posts. 640,000 people referred by friends and more than 8,000 e mails received. A ‘sign below’ to ask for promotional t-shirts ‘Una Passione’ was made spontaneously, generating 694 signatures with ID numbers. On MSN, countless users added the characters for conversations that could last hours. The “friends” limit on Orkut was exceeded and people posted countless compliments to Fiat. In four months, 190 players bought a Fiat car.