Tag Archives: scooters

vespa event markets

AdAge gives a sorta shoutout to Piaggio's pr strategyIn this Ad Age 3 Minute Video Piaggio US is highlited for their recent NYC pr effort to shore up brand and message by pitching fuel economy and immediately took a whack to the head by owners/viewers who can’t find the connection.

The entire industry having enjoyed immensely last year’s four-buck-a-gallon price spike for gas that serendipitously coincided with the worst recession since the depression perhaps missed the point hidden within record sales. Looks to some like mistaking lifestyle love for economy class lust is a monster golden opportunity missed to connect at the emotional level instead of grabbing for the wallet.

An interesting piece by Lee Klancher in MPN’s August issue casts fresh light on the relevance- and role – of mpg claims as a marketing ploy. Taken together, these two articles (and the surrounding comments) lead to only one conclusion: playing the price of gas card for creative inspiration is picking the lowest of the low hanging fruit.

what’s new, pussycat

Ben Montgomery is a damn fine writer for the St. Pete Times. When he’s not covering the impact gulf drilling would have on Florida beaches, he’s giving readers a first timers view of the road from behind the handlebars of his massive new mistress red manly machine as it roars up and down the highways of greater Tampa Bay.

This is a wicked bad riff on machismo, life in the mellow lane, teenage taunting, and the memorable vagaries of owner’s “manuals” authored by the Chinese. As the flood of scooter related mentions goes these days, it’s well worth a read.

scooters ride the wave

Cha-ching goes the gas pump and another pissed off motorist does the long hard look at the increasingly not that crazy scooter buzzing by at 70-mpg. All over America these two-wheeled sippers are hitting mainstream stride, cashing in on a flurry of coverage from editors eager to exploit Top Ten lists on how to beat the prices at the pump.

For instance. Last week the local paper’s Saturday automotive section front page was devoted to scooters. Can’t imagine the stalwart page advertisers were too thrilled, but there it was, a four-color shoutout to the virtues of minimalism. And style, and just plain hipness. We call it pr on a platter, there for the plucking.