• by Karl Greenberg , November 12, 2008

Piaggio Group's Vespa scooter brand will launch a new U.S. Web site on Friday that takes what had been a static site with little sound and motion to an animated one with several themes, and a richer look and feel.

The new VespaUSA.com is via N.Y.-based digital firm Last Exit. The site will have areas for Vespa merchandise, for the scooters, for the Vespa rider community--and one on "Why, Where and How" and for downloads. It also continues the "Vespanomics" theme of the past two years, positing scooters as a transportation alternative for cutting energy and gridlock.

Nuri Djavit, creative director and founding partner of New York and London-based Last Exit, said the new site will follow a theme created for the European/global site launched two years ago. "It has a very 'candy box' feel," he says. "But when Piaggio USA launched Vespa, they did very much of a basic site on very little budget. This is the first real investment in a Web site for the North American market." He adds that the agency is also launching a new U.S. site for the sibling Piaggio brand that goes live in two weeks.

Djavit says the site reflects the Vespa brand's insouciance with a playful feel and more of a focus on the Vespa rider community. There's a social-networking section with a Google Maps-based Community Rides," an interactive mapping system that lets people submit their favorite routes for commuting or pleasure. Site users can pick a mapped route, customize it, save it, and resubmit it for popular viewing.

"It's presenting the broad scope of things from lifestyle through utility," he says. "We try to say that Vespa, apart from the lifestyle play, is extremely practical, useful and fun. The site's easier to use, and coupled with a more expressive brand-focused look and feel, every part of the site looks and feels and imparts Vespa."

The new site uses visual themes such as apples, also used on the European market Web site. The apple icon plays off the Italian phrase "Chi 'Vespa' mangia le mele," which translates to "He who 'Vespas' eats apples." In Italy, says the agency, the apple is synonymous with an appreciation and zest for life.

Djavit says traffic on the old Vespa site has reached "tens of thousands of visits per day." To some extent, Vespa sales have been inverse to the automotive industry's, especially mid-year when gas prices spiked. But September was the company's best ever in the U.S.

"Even though gas prices have gone down, people are still looking into easy transport. We did research in Europe on this and found that the prime reason people buy scooters is [because] it's easy to get around," says Djavit.

While the company runs print advertising, PR and does event marketing, our remit is to launch the site and follow up with social activation," says Djavit. He says that next spring the agency will run online promotions, competitions and viral campaigns. "We are devising several sustained campaigns over many months."