UPenn Students Reveal One of Eight Existing Honda Fits!


www.fitadelphia.com
For one day only, Philadelphia will get an exclusive look at one of eight existing Honda Fits (Honda’s all new subcompact car) at the Head House (Lombard and 2nd Street) on Friday March 31st. The event is FREE to the public from 11am to 4pm and open to the media from 11am to 1pm. If possible, Enginuity would appreciate if participants came earlier in the day to be a part of the media coverage.

The Fit, to be released this spring, offers a 13.1-feet-long car with many adjustable features at a low price. Participants will be able to interact with the interior settings, take pictures, and even plug their iPods into the vehicle. In addition, the event will deliver free food, prizes, and live music performances.

A team of Penn marketing students is offering this limited viewing of the car as the culmination of their efforts in a nationwide competition. Enginuity, a self-sufficient marketing agency, is competing against 17 other universities across the nation to create a full-scale marketing campaign for the Honda Fit. The success of this event will help secure their chances of winning a $5,000 prize and the possibility of realizing their marketing campaign on a national scale.

WHO: Enginuity: student-operated marketing agency at the University of Pennsylvania invites all Philadelphians to see first ever Honda Fit

WHAT: An exciting and interactive event showcasing the Honda Fit to the public with free food, prizes, and music!

WHEN: Friday, March 31, from 11am to 4pm. The event is open to the media from 11am to 1pm.

Where: the Head House (Lombard and 2nd Street)

 

There's only 8 existing Fits????? Better grab these things up while you can! lol

 

Hello guys,

I am one of the people in charge for this event happening. The fit will be traveling throughout the US, and as a student agency for Honda we were asked to develop an event for them.

As stated above the event will take place in Philadelphia in 2nd and Lombard Street (Headhouse Shambles).

There will be many giveaways, Music Performance, Food, and of course the New Honda Fit, and it will be free to touch, play with and anything you want.

There are also going to be a lot of raffles, with a grand prize of 250 dollars gift certificate and many other happenings

Whoever is interested we are expecting you all from 11pm to 5pm on Friday 31st March

Hope to see you there!

 

I think that is all for the Honda of America Tour that is displaying the Fit across the country...

 

Yes the Honda Fit event in Philadelphia takes place on the 14th of April. This is a seperate Honda fit Appearance.

 

The FIT was already shown this year in Philadelphia at the 2006 Auto Show in the Convention Center. It sat unattended with its doors wide open for inspection. Based on my look-see, I ordered the 1st one in from a NJ dealer at MSRP.

 

I think I'll head by and try to show up early.

 

dont forget to take pictures.

 

Any chance the Fit will be displayed in Little Rock?

 

I may have been one of the first people there since I didn't realize it was such a short walk from the office. As I was nearing the venue, I saw the Fit actually drive by on the street. I thought I would be able to get a test drive in! My hopes were dashed though by a nice fellow who goes by 'quiksilver128' or something similar. The car would remain stationary.

The Fit was a Blaze Orange Metallic Sport Auto. The color is a bit flash but I guess you can't complain that you won't be seen. This was the first time that I had an in-depth look at the Fit. Funny story, I propped the hood up and a couple minutes later an older gentleman came by, looked at me, and asked, "Where's the engine?" He must've been raised on American muscle.

One area of concern from users on this forum was the application of the Sport's lower aero pieces. The front and rear lip seemed to held on by tape and some screws at the ends. The side skirts, I'm not too sure. The rear spoiler compliments the hatch well. Speaking of the hatch, I was afraid that it would be too high when raised, judging from the press pictures I've seen. Good to know my concern was unfounded because I think the hatch opens to a very reasonable height.

While they were parking the Fit in position, I noticed the turn-to-turn is probably only about 2.3 turns total. I suppose steering will be nice and tight. The dash buttons in no way felt flimsy. I guess I expect that from Honda. The climate control dials seemed a bit stiff though. For those who'll be ordering the Auto, the paddles feel decent but they don't click with authority. No matter since I don't intend on buying the automatic anyway.

Something that baffles me is the omission of a dead pedal. Likewise, there are no hooks in the cargo area for grocery bags and such. No standard armrest is a bit sad as well. Ah come aawwwwnnnn, Honda.

Now, about the event itself. It seemed to me that the most important source of visitors was foot traffic. People ended up looking at the Fit for a minute or two, leave with a promotional coupon and some food, and that's it. I guess that's what the UPenn team actually wanted though. Myself, I wanted more interaction or something. But the fact that Honda only provided one Fit was probably a severe limitation. With that said, I still wound up staying for about an hour. Some folks actually thought I was involved with the event somehow.

For Honda, this was bloody cheap advertising. From what I understand, Honda just provided the car and $2,500 to each school. Certainly it got the word out to the general public. Maybe one of the UPenn students can tell us. Success or no?

-Vince

 

post post post

 

vkeks05,

Thanks for you write-up. I'm sure zorakenith and other UPenn members appreciate your feedback.

Plus it sounds like you had fun.

 

There were many constraints from our limited budget ($2,500), to being the only challenge team that was off-campus (the city didn't make it easy for us), to the day and time we would have access to the car. Besides raising awareness and purchase consideration for the Fit, one of our primary goals was to have 600 car interactions. Honda defined an interaction as sitting in the Fit. This limited some of our possibilities for the event.

In terms of measuring our impact... Fox29 was there to cover our event, the feedback from our exit surveys and initial awareness surveys were very positive, and we exceeded all of our performance goals by generous margins (close to 800 interactions). We are still measuring the impressions generated by our campaign but judging from what we have so far, I'd say the event was a tremendous success.

We have a survey on our website (Fitadelphia.com). If you attended our event and haven't had the chance to give us feedback, we'd appreciate a few minutes of your time. In return, we are providing a raffle entry for a $250 gift certificate to a Philadelphia restaurant of your choice. We thank everyone who took the time to come to our event and/or visit our website.

 

There's still going to be an event on College Green this Thursday 4/6, right? All the posters on campus have this info. Also, will there be test drives available?

 

There is a different group running the event on campus.

(Honda won't allow for test drives so there setup should be similar although they'll have access to more foot traffic.)

 

Disappointing that there won't be test drives - that's the only thing I needed to do before really deciding on the Fit.

 

the car will be in dealerships on April 20th. The current campaign is just to raise awareness. Thank you again for attending.

 

Hello all, and sorry for not replying to your questions so soon.

First of all you can all check the website for pictures of the car and if you attented the event you will definitely see yourself www.fitadelphia.com

The event was a success in terms of what we expected and what we actually got. More people than what we originally expected came. As to the test-drives we were explicitelly told by Honda that we weren't allowed to offer any test-drives , since they have only 3-4 cars running around the nation for the shows they are attending!

I would like for once more to extend our many thanks to the people from fitfreak. net and all of you who actually got interested in our work and even visited our event.

 

THE EVENT WAS AWESOME!!! Some of the pictures on www.fitadelphia.com are hilarious. I think the guy who picked his nose is one of the register members here. Also, the car looks quite nice in black rather than orange. Check out the new color!