• by Karl Greenberg , June 3, 2013

Fiat and Jones Soda are going surfing. The California cross-promotion touts the new Left Coast-friendly Fiat 500e electric car, and the new Natural SKU of Jones Soda. The theme? "Jonesin’ for a Fiat 500e,” of course.

The event and sampling platform includes a presence at the U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, Calif., as well as Fiat dealership sampling programs.

The effort, which runs through the end of October, includes a national digital program dangling a new 500 (or 500e if the winner is in California) to people who submit photos of any Fiat 500 model. People have to upload their photos to #Jonesinforafiat500e through Jones Soda Co.’s official Web site, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook pages. 

The companies say weekly winners get a "prize pack" of Jones Soda and Fiat Brand merchandise. The photo element, in addition to pointing a lens at Fiat vehicles, is pretty well aligned with Jones Soda, whose numerous photo label iterations are crowdsourced. Said Jennifer Cue, CEO, Jones Soda, in a statement: “This is a fun way for us to connect with our fan base and do what Jones Soda does best, connect with our consumers through photography.”

As for North American performance, this summer is likely to hold some other fizz for the Chrysler LLC brand, at least based on how the company did last month when it set record sales, and capped a 15th-consecutive-month spree of year-over-year sales gains. May was also Fiat's best sales month so far this year. Also last month the company reached a milestone since it swam back to the U.S.: it reported passing the 100,000-units-sold mark in North America.

The company is also launching a new vehicle this month -- the 2014 Fiat 500L, the brand's Mini-like attempt to inch its way into larger vehicle segments (as if it could be smaller than it is now). The new car has four doors and seats five.