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.
