Fiat's Italian designer of the new Fiat Panda, Roberto Giolito personified the Fiat brand as host of the first Dutch commercial hangout. In a realtime virtual meeting with Fiat fans, he surprised them with an exclusive preview of the Panda’s interior and exterior design. A car that would officially be revealed to the general (Dutch) public only months later! The fans were very curious about the making of the Fiat Panda. They took full advantage of the opportunity to ask questions and give invaluable face-to-face feedback. After this engaging get-together the hangout participants rapidly shared their experience with their social communities through other social networks like Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. So Fiat was able to leverage its ‘owned’ media towards ‘earned’ media. After this private party, the video chat was also posted on Fiat’s own Youtube channel.

Fiat was globally the 1st in its category to make intelligent use of this Google+ feature. By seizing this opportunity and executing it in a compelling way, Fiat achieved its goals of telling its brand story and truly engaging face-to-face with its fans.The Dutch Fiat+ page has with 753+ followers the largest number in its category. The Fiat hangout video has since been watched by more than 11.000 people via Youtube channels. Fiats initiative on Google+ had been picked up by many websites, with an estimated worth of €1.343.750 media value.