27% of cars sold worldwide are grey. Despite this, Fiat decided to stop producing them. A seemingly surprising choice that had two purposes. To concretely give life to the "Dolce vita for all" brand positioning, characterized by a strong link to Italy, a country famous for its joy, optimism and colours. And to distinguish itself from competitors, within the world of automotive advertisements, which are all the same as each other and only focus on products and features.

To make this business idea - no more grey cars - memorable, we sought the most spectacular, innovative, and unexpected way possible: to put Fiat's Global President, Olivier Francois, in a grey Fiat 600 attached to a cable, which was connected to a huge crane. Lift him 15 metres high above the colourful town of Lerici, Italy and then submerge him in an actual giant canister containing 10.000 litres of orange paint. The result was a spectacular video that was able to transversally intercept every target audience, conveying the brand positioning "New Dolce Vita for all" to everyone around the world.

Fiat doesn’t believe in grey cars: Fiat prefers to think that colours represent all those values of Italian-ness dear to the brand. Values, which the brand wanted to communicate to as many people as possible. But, instead of resorting to a typical manifesto, as is usual in the automotive world, Fiat wanted something more spectacular and outstanding. Operation No Grey is a manifesto by Fiat. Specifically designed for PR because of its spectacular, memorable, and inviting nature. Before the actual launch, a teaser was shared on the brand's social channels. Then, after the hero video was aired online, a making of video was released telling how the dipping of the car into a 10.000-litre paint can was made technically possible. In addition, digital assets were made, which reinforced the link between Fiat and the colours of Italy.

The uniqueness and memorability of the creative execution, which was disruptive in industry communication, allowed the campaign to spread spontaneously around the world. In fact, the launch film, making of and digital amplification were solely shared on the brand's proprietary media, without any additional PR push. Nonetheless, the video of the operation received global media coverage, being republished by national and international trade and non-trade publications.

With zero paid media, the film spread spontaneously, reaching 46.4 million views. More importantly, it generated +74% positive sentiment towards the brand. System1, a global marketing research and effectiveness company, found that it is in the top 3% of UK car ads of all time for audience preference. It scored 3.6 stars while the average is 2.4 stars. It also performs well on its potential to drive short-term sales, scoring an 'exceptional' 1.34 spike score, higher than the category average of 1.04. It has also been featured in more than 6,500 articles in newspapers and magazines around the world such as Le Monde, The Times, and SKY.