The 15th of October 2014 was a rainy Wednesday in London, but for commuters walking through the city, it was the perfect chance to witness the launch of a new guerrilla advertising campaign by FIAT. That morning, the car brand introduced a rain-activated guerrilla campaign to promote its new Panda Cross SUV, on the soaked pavements.

To emphasise the cars capabilities in different conditions, (made possible by its all-wheel drive system and new terrain selector), FIAT devised an outdoor media strategy incorporating rain-activated water stencils.

Spray painters prepared stencilled advertisements for the Panda Cross and painted them on roads in high footfall locations up and down the country. The paint was rain-activated, (the images only appeared when exposed to water), and the advertisements read, “Any Terrain. Any Weather. Anything Goes. Fiat Panda”

This video shows how it was done:

The aim of the campaign was to highlight the dual versatility of the Panda Cross SUV – it nimbly navigates urban environments, but also has the capability to handle unique outdoor environments – as its 2014 model includes a revamped all-wheel drive system and new terrain selector.

To complement the wet-stencils, FIAT surprised Londoners with outdoor guerrilla projections that lit up the night sky. The projections, which appeared in unexpected locations such as on building walls and windows of well-known attractions across the country, showed animated scenes of the Panda Cross bending and swerving as it drove across the screen.

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The aim of the campaign was to highlight the dual versatility of the Panda Cross SUV, as a car that can nimbly navigate urban environments, while having the capabilities of a proper off-road vehicle.

FIAT identifies the Panda’s core audience as urban commuters who enjoy an outdoor lifestyle, and using an unconventional out-of-home format aligns with the Panda Cross’s mission to be a car like no other.

This small-scale out-of-home initiative follows a recent trend of companies such as Ford and Google, who are using hyper-local outdoor advertisements to harness guerrilla advertising techniques, charm audiences and generate social buzz. In FIAT’s case, advertising exposure is even more variable, dependent on weather conditions.

On rainy days, it is unknown how many individuals will look down for advertisements. However, if they happened to catch FIAT’s messaging, it may just have brightened their otherwise rainy day.

Hotcow is a non-traditional creative agency that specialises in experiential marketing that goes viral. Our campaigns generate buzz through crowd participation, PR and content sharing. Contact us on 0207 5030442 or email us on info@hotcow.co.uk.