Shot by Michael Haussman through Serious Pictures, London, the spot is set for release in Europe over the next few months and was created by Red Cell, a global communications network launched by WPP Group earlier this year (See Boards, March 2001). The spot reveals a new style of advertising for Alfa Romeo, fashioned by Red Cell's distinct approach to satisfying its clients' needs.

Red Cell took its client through a strategic planning and creative development process called "Brandstorm," a series of virtual and physical events that take place to better define and meet a client's marketing objectives.

"Alfa Romeo came to us because they were introducing a new model and wanted consumers to come away from the spot thinking about the model in a different way," explains Mike Doherty, exec vice-president, managing director at Red Cell.

"The main problem for Alfa Romeo was that the Alfa 147 has five doors and was therefore considered a hatchback, so it's not that cool right off the bat. Besides conveying the extreme accessibility that five doors offers, they also wanted us to convey something different."

Brandstorm consists of creatives in Paris, London and Milan who participate virtually in a workshop within a series of modular exercises that build upon each other, taking clients through strategic brainstorming to highlight potential ideas, solve problems and execute ideas.

"It's really a collaborative experience," says Doherty. "The clients are involved as well as agency creatives who get drawn into the workshop right from the start. They don't wait until they get the brief."

As many as 20 people are broken up into teams to generate ideas which are then passed on through a filter called The Eclectic Network. "This is a group of people we have signed on around the world to participate strategically and creatively," explains Doherty. "Their role is to help synthesize the output from the Brandstorm workshop and explode on that with some other strategic possibilities."

Once all possibilities were investigated, account planners then simmered down everything into a creative brief, which for Alfa Romeo was placed in front of creative teams in Milan.

"With Alfa Romeo, we used the Internet and The Eclectic Network once again over the Web. This Web jam gave Alfa Romeo the opportunity to see the ideas that everyone had created, and allowed us all to build on those ideas to finally come up with the creative that Alfa Romeo wanted," says Doherty.

All investigations led Red Cell to the realization that Alfa Romeo had typically focused on the male side of the audience in the past, with outwardly directed campaigns focused on various car features. As a result, Red Cell brought to light the strategic possibility of being inwardly-focused in style, looking more at the sensation of driving the car and the consequent excitement surrounding that.

"The central message of the brief became extreme accessibility with extreme sensation," says Doherty. "I think that this comes through really well in the spot -- it's more about the sensation of driving the vehicle; really, the fact that it has five doors makes it all the more cool because you lead with the sensation and the excitement of driving the car."

Red Cell now looks forward to fueling other creative ideas for various clients and has been well received since its inception.

"Someone from the American Association of Advertising Agencies expressed his thoughts by saying that we are the first revolutionary change that has come along in advertising in a long, long time," reveals Doherty. "In terms of new business, we're receiving calls from the likes of tobacco clients and financial services. The idea that any company can compete anywhere, and that they can be a global challenger even if they're not a category leader is really resonating across a lot of industries.

"Clients have to be thought leaders and create that lighthouse identity so that everybody knows that they're there, even though they don't have as much money to spend as everyone else," continues Doherty. "As the economy slows and clients spend less, they feel the need to let people know what they stand for and not try and blend in with the crowd."

Webfiles>

Red Cell> www.redcellnetwork.com