KEY TAKEOUTS
- Abarth’s global appeal: Abarth captivates a worldwide audience with its racing heritage, accessible performance, and Italian design flair.
- The power of User-generated Content: Abarth leverages fan-created content through StoryStream, resulting in increased conversion, engagement, and visibility.
- The impact of StoryStream’s collaboration: StoryStream seamlessly integrates Abarth’s fan content, leading to longer website visits, higher conversion rates, and an extraordinary double-digit ROI.
Abarth’s unique charm has been capturing the world’s attention for over a generation now. Yet trying to capture the essence of what it is that makes Abarth cars so alluring – what is about them that captivates even non-enthusiasts – is a near-impossible question to answer. This case study explores how Abarth became a beloved favourite among car enthusiasts, how this equates to vast amounts of content, and how Abarth is leveraging fan-created content through their partnership with StoryStream. We’ll explore the impact of this collaboration, showing how by embracing the power of its phenomenal community of fans, Abarth is able to increase webpage conversions, boost audience engagement, and celebrate their community in scroll-stopping social hub galleries.
A LEGION OF ABARTHISTIS
Clues as to Abarth’s enduring (some might even say “cult”) popularity can be found throughout the brand’s history. Abarth is an Italian automotive company founded by Carlo Abarth in 1949. Initially specialising in spare parts for Fiat cars, Abarth gained recognition for its successful collaboration with Fiat to develop high-performance versions of their models. This, combined with the company’s racing achievements in the 1960s, solidified its reputation for agility and speed. The iconic Fiat 500 Abarth exemplified Abarth’s ability to get impressive performance from small engines. The brand’s appeal lies in its rich racing heritage, passion for motorsports, accessible performance, and, of course, its Italian design flair.
This history has created a legion of Abarthistis (the term given to owners, fans and enthusiasts of Abarth), who are dedicated to the brand, passionate about their products and want to like and share content about them. There are a multitude of social groups and hashtags for the brand, on Instagram alone, there are 1.7 million #abarth posts, followed by almost 550K #abarth595 posts. Amongst my favourites: #AbarthWomensDay – a hashtag dedicated to celebrating women who are passionate about Abarth cars, and @AbarthGirlsUK, a notable Facebook community for female Abarth enthusiasts. These sit amongst an array of Abarth hashtags and accounts for Abarth on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
This vast social following is something that has not gone unnoticed by Abarth. In 2020 the brand reached out to their extended family, the Abarthisti fandom, to set a Guinness world record. Abarth set up a Facebook page asking fans to upload photos of their cars, within one hour, the Abarth owners had uploaded 868 images of their cars. This landed Abarth with the record for ‘the largest digital gathering ever’.
So have we got the perfect recipe; a brand with an abundance of User-generated Content from a passionate fan base combined with a content curation platform that specialises in UGC experiences. Here we’ll explore how StoryStream seamlessly brings to life the UGC created for Abarth on their website whilst generating ROI for the brand and authentically engaging with its customers!
THE PERFECT RECIPE
Abarth’s challenge was how to effectively leverage the vast collection of fan-generated content and display the best selection on their website to increase webpage conversion, audience engagement, and content visibility.
Enter StoryStream. Building on the success of our Stellantis multi-brand partnership (including brands Jeep, Fiat, Alfa Romeo), Abarth recognised StoryStream as the ideal partner to enhance the customer experiences on their website. Our platform provides Abarth with a solution for curating and showcasing the best content from their passionate fan base. By using StoryStream, Abarth is able to carefully select and display User-generated Content on their website. Furthermore, by harnessing the power of StoryStream, Abarth has seamlessly connected customers to various sections of their website, using effective call-to-actions (CTA) including booking a test drive, finding a retailer, and building/pricing a model. This integration enables a seamless customer journey, enhancing engagement and creating valuable interactions for the brand with their customers.
By utilising the StoryStream platform, Abarth is able to authentically engage with their community by incorporating their content seamlessly into the brand’s website. The StoryStream platform offers advanced features for content curation, moderation, and display, enabling Abarth to create a visually captivating and compelling digital space on their website.
‘IT’S AN AMAZING PLATFORM WHICH MAKES THE WEBSITE UNIQUE BY TELLING STORIES’ – STELLANTIS GROUP
We have seen incredible results implementing StoryStream’s homepage gallery onto the Abarth website. Visitors who engage with the User-generated Content (UGC) gallery spend, on average, 321% longer on the website compared to those who don’t engage. This increased engagement translates into higher conversion rates, as engaged users are 22% more likely to complete high-value actions such as booking a test drive, building and pricing a model, or finding a retailer.
THOSE THAT ENGAGE WITH STORYSTREAM SPEND ON AVERAGE 321% LONGER ON THE WEBSITE
The return on investment (ROI) achieved through implementing StoryStream is strong, using the Stellantis ROI model, Abarth calculates an impressive double-digit ROI ratio, demonstrating the value generated by leveraging fan-generated content through the StoryStream platform.
Overall, the partnership with StoryStream has allowed Abarth to transform their website into a dynamic and engaging platform that not only celebrates their passionate fan base but also captivates visitors, leading to increased conversion rates, extended website visits, and heightened brand affinity. By authentically connecting with their community and showcasing their fans’ experiences through UGC, Abarth illustrates to new and existing customers, how they value and embrace the enthusiasm of its fans.
