Maserati touts Quattroporte to best prospects via New York events

April 4, 2013

Maserati is celebrating the reveal of the sixth-generation Quattroporte with events at its Manhattan and Long Island dealerships that fete the brand’s Italian heritage.

The new sedan was first revealed Jan. 14 at the 2013 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Now, the automaker’s New York metropolitan area showrooms, Maserati of Long Island and Maserati of Manhattan, are each showing off the model in a more intimate setting to drive foot traffic and strengthen relationships with customers in the region.

“Maserati has had an event with each dealership to launch the cars in the local market,” said Michael Bellina, general manager of Maserati of Manhattan, New York. “Maserati did it for us in New York, since it did not partake in the New York Auto Show, and we got to tie into the Autism Awareness month Light It Up Blue program.

“We do a lot of different types of events for brand messaging to get our name out there,” he said.

Big Apple

The Maserati brand has found success in maintaining close contact with customers and fans, per the automaker.

Therefore, exclusive live opportunities such as the New York celebrations of the 2014 Quattroporte models offer Maserati an ideal setting to leverage its one-to-one relationships.

Maserati of Manhattan and Maserati of Long Island, part of the Experience Auto Group dealership network, each held events centered on the new model and the automaker’s heritage to target customers in these areas.

The cocktail party April 1 at Maserati of Long Island included the first New York-based viewing of the 2014 Quattroporte.

Guests were invited to interact with the model and were offered cocktails and fare by Taste of H.

On April 2, Maserati of Manhattan invited brand loyalists and select media to view the 2014 Quattroporte and other models in the showroom such as the GranTurismo Convertible Range and the GranTurismo Sport Automatic.

The showroom located in New York’s Tribeca is the only standalone dealership in North America at this time, per Maserati.

The event was held 7-10 p.m. At 8 p.m., the two variations of the Quattroporte were revealed – one with a V8 twin-turbocharged engine and another with a V6 twin-turbocharged engine.

Reveal

Guests were served cocktails and Taste of H fare from Modena, Italy.

Since the event was held on Autism Awareness Day, Maserati showed off its partnership with Autism Speaks and pushed the Light It Up Blue campaign during the evening.

Quattroporte illuminated in blue

The sixth-generation Quattroporte represents new standards in design, development, fabrication and process controls, per Maserati.

The model features a touch-control interior screen, adjustable pedals, WLAN-based Wi-Fi and optional 15-speaker, 1280 Watt Bowers & Wilkins audio system.

Maserati is complementing its Quattroporte launch events with digital efforts such as a microsite at http://www.maseratiquattroporte.com.

“We are seeing a trend in luxury vehicles hosting showroom events,” said George Magda, vice president of national accounts at Herman Advertising, Fort Lauderdale, FL. “Luxury vehicles are a lifestyle choice, and with brands like Maserati, people want to feel special and nothing is more special than a private event.

“These events are a fast-growing alternative, especially when you throw social media in to the mix,” he said. “Guests of these aspiring brands light a fuel of excitement and viral activity when they begin posting images to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram."

Special event

Many luxury automakers hold small-scale events so that brand ambassadors can interact with prospective customers one-on-one.

For example, Bentley Motors is pushing the U.S. reveal of its new Flying Spur model among best prospects by holding invitation-only events in three cities.

Bentley partnered with American Express Publishing’s Departures magazine to host a series of three “One Night Only” events in the United States, the first of which took place March 26 in New York. Select guests gathered to witness the unveiling of the Flying Spur, chat with craftsmen from the automaker’s Crewe, England-based factory and watch a performance by singer-songwriter Solange Knowles (see story).

In lieu of exhibiting models at the New York International Auto Show, Maserati invited consumers to smaller-scale New York events in an effort to offer a more tailored experience.

“The strategy behind the launch was to utilize Maserati's only mono-brand showroom in North America, which shines the spotlight on the Maserati brand exclusively, in addition to being in a major media market like New York,” said Ryan Hattaway, president of Mogul Media Group, Miami.

“The primary benefits of hosting unveiling events at the showroom is that it allows the guests to experience the launch in a true Maserati-branded environment as opposed to a third-party venue, in addition to having the full Maserati vehicle lineup onsite where guests can see a full showroom of beautiful automobiles,” he said.

Below are photographs from the Manhattan launch party.