Alfa Romeo Real People

This is potentially my last day with Giulietta, the keeper of the car is to be notified tomorrow. So to mark what has been a beautiful driving year I have decided to put together a list of things I shall miss most should I not be the lucky winner.

1. Admiring glances as I drive by or park up somewhere – people are impressed by this car.

2. Making handsfree phone calls with the Blue & Me system – voice activated so don’t even have to look up the number!

3. Little touches like this one when you close the driver door;

and then when you take the keys out of the ignition.

4. The incredibly cosy heating system. I put it to the test when disaster struch my Giulietta last week. Some little feckers smashed into my driver’s window, ignored the alarm going off and snipped out my sat nav – they then walked away (my neighbour watched from his balcony). So the lovely people at Alfa repaired it for me (thank you Aoife & Carl) and so I drove it to them with the window down – even with all that cold air blowing in I was toasty warm!

5. The beauty of the interior, particularly the dashboard. I must confess that I looked at a ‘just in case’ car a couple of weeks back. I was getting the car valeted for the ad recording and this was right beside a car dealership, so I wandered around. I saw a nice car, an estate, thought it looked ok so the guy gave me the keys. Walking towards it I was thinking ‘see this wouldn’t be so bad, it’s a nice car’ then the minute I sat in it my heart just sank. I read a review of an Alfa Romeo by Top Gear’s Richard Hammond and he described the interior as an high end italian espresso bar, he’s right it’s classy and beautiful and you only really appreciate it when you compare it to something else!

6. Having to engage central locking myself, I have really gotten used to a car that does it for you and I have felt nice and safe, particularly as I have a baba in the back.

7. Having to chose what gear to travel at myself – another beauty about the Giulietta is it recommends which gear is most efficient for the car. Even the odd time I have driven my husband’s car over the last year, I have found myself looking to the dash for the little arrow.

8. Driving a car with ‘a bit of poke’ in it, as my hubby describes it. Not that I’ve been racing it around the streets or anything but it is lovely to drive a car with a bit of power – heading up hills, taking off from traffic lights, you can just feel the strength of the engine. Plus it’s not a diesel guzzler, it’s pretty economical due to the engine’s design and the features such as the stop & start and gear change recommendations so you don’t pay for the power.

9. Just basically loving my car, I have always loved the freedom driving gives you since I learnt at 19 but I have never actually LOVED the car I drive. There is no denying the Giulietta Lusso is a top of the range beauty, anyone would fall for it but the competition has also made all of us really personalise our car with writing the blog so I’ve looked at the car is so much detail, it will definitely be a sad goodbye.

So all that remains to be said is good luck to all – there is no doubt that everyone has not only worked hard on the blog, tasks and ad but they all obviously love the car so there are worthy winners all round. Thanks for all in Alfa – Aoife, Adrian, Carl & Connor (for multiple iso fix fixing!) – for everything throughout the year and to Tractamotors for fixing up my second baby! And to my Giulietta Lusso the biggest thanks, it’s been emotional! And if I can’t have you, no one can……!

Please be advised that no Alfa Romeo Giuliettas were harmed in the making of this video, it is purely for comic value and in no way reflects my planned behaviour should I lose out, in fact I find it quite difficult to watch

Not so clever now……

At the eleventh hour, I have realised that perhaps I tried to do too much. Showing the many features of the Giulietta, getting in plenty of driving shots and ecorporating 3 movies all to be edited down into 30 seconds, is after 3 days of trying, not possible. Trying to be clever was not so clever after all!

So I have been left with this option only, to put up both the 30″ as my entry but also the extended version, the directors cut if you will. Sheesh! I don’t know how Spielberg does it!

Good luck to everyone, we all know it’s been blood, sweat & tears but exciting none the less!

Finally got out to film the ad today! My camera man was my good friend Dave Davin, Raic Productions. He was one of the 5 people I suggested as a suitable target market for a Giulietta and at the time I photographed him with the car we were discussing the competition. I told him about the ad part of the competition, as it had been mentioned when we upgraded to our Giulietta Lusso, I outlined my idea and he said to give him a shout if I needed any help. Little did he know then, that the day after New Year’s he’d be there camera in hand! We had been rained off twice and between Xmas & New Year commitments we had literally left it to the last possible day, as I was returning to work the following but thank God we did as the sun shone and even though it was freezing everything looked beautiful.

I chose to film around Grand Canal Dock, the area has received a huge amount of regeneration in recent years using innovative urban design which I knew would tie in with the Giulietta and provide an excellent back drop.

So I broke the treatment (I’ve heard this term used on MTV’s Making the Video!) down into a number of shots – obviously there would be driving shots and interiors of the car but I decided the 3 Uma characters would show off the features I thought were the USPs of the Giulietta.

The Bride, Kill Bill was to open to ad showing the bootspace & built in Tom Tom Sat Nav. Poison Ivy the Bose Sound System & MP3 Connection, DNA driving feature & dual climate control system and Mia Wallace, Pulp Fiction the Blue & me technology.

The driving shots would show features such as the Stop Start system & 6 gears and the ultimate driving comfort and pleasure. And with the interior, I really wanted to capture the sleek dash, the sports pedals and show that the car had spacious back seats as the Giulietta can decievingly look like a 3 door (back doors have the coolest concealed doors).

So we began with the latter and it was far more comfortable to be the one in the car with the heat set to 29 degrees and the driving pleasure was immense!

Dave waiting at the corner for a Drive by

I controlled the brake lights while Dave captured

The Beauty Shot!

Next it was time to become The Bride of Kill Bill, though let me tell you no one would marry me in that jumpsuit! I hadn’t quite thought through where I was going to get changed – it had to be the back of the Giuletta, pausing for passers by, and while it wasn’t the easiest clothes change of my life it was further testement to the spacious backseats of the car!

We decided to grab some stationary shots of the car, while the light was so good and it being Ireland, the weather system was likely to change any minute. It was my bright idea to mount the pavement, and while I knew it would look good I really feared for the front grill of the car! I even rang my hubby from inside the car just to double check it wasn’t a completely stupid thing to do and on his advice i just took it slowly!

Perhaps an even more frightening prospect was handling the wig but I did it and transformed into a poor man’s Mia Wallace! But with the whole point of the ad being that you never see the face of the characters, I didn’t really measure myself up too harshly. I had asked Dave to recall A Question of Sport and how they would ask contestants to ‘guess the sports personality’, they were shown just enough to give them a clue and the answer, this was the kind of filming style I was looking for.

I had planned to deliver the last couple of lines to the camera but with the wind, the sound just wasn’t up for it, so it was a bit slicker, stylewise to stick to text.

Finally it was the turn of Poison Ivy and if you’ve read my previous post you will have seen that you wouldn’t wear the costume I purchased online and expect to be given any credibility – it is cheap, nasty and borderline indecent! So I salvaged what I could from it and just went with the ivy. I want to win this competition but I have to draw the line somewhere!

With the sun going down and everything going to plan we called it a day. Thanks Dave, couldn’t have done it without you!

Guilietta, Glad to be home, resting ahead of driving me to my first day of post maternity leave work tomm!

The final task in the race to drive away in the Giulietta for keeps is to film a 30″ TV ad showing off the car’s finery and the features which have added to our driving experience.

I think the car speaks for itself, with such a sleek, stylish design just a few shots of it driving around and I reckon you’d be sold. The interior doesn’t disappoint either and there are unique features galore. So what I really needed was a creative way to tie it all together, bearing in mind I’ve got fellow contestants just as in love with their Giuliettas so I wanted to come up with something a little different that might make mine stand out.

I decided to go back to the beginning. The first time I laid eyes on the Giulietta was in the ad with Uma Thurman. She was chosen as the face of the brand in 2010 and a campaign, created by international advertising agency Leo Burnett, was built around her for TV & print across Europe.  The agency explain that the TV ad pays homage to 100 years of Alfa Romeo by paralleling the technology and dynamism of Giulietta with the beauty and power of actress Uma Thurman.

The ad ends with a Shakespeare quote: “Such Stuff as Dreams are Made on”. In brief, the new Alfa Romeo is a dream that becomes reality. As with the original Giulietta of the 1950s, it’s a model that makes the dream of owning an Alfa Romeo reachable for the first time for motorists worldwide. The Giulietta has the design and technology of a super car but is built for every day use – as the second ad shows, it can be a family car.

The ad has been hugely sucessful for Alfa Romeo taking home the NC Award for best television ad of the year in 2011 and New Media Age reports that Alfa Romeo saw a 49% surge in brand awareness following the personalised ad campaign.

So it is from here that I drew my inspiration. I tried to think about why Alfa Romeo chose Uma Thurman. She is undeniably beautiful but there must have been something else which made her stand out from the other Hollywood starlets. Actresses, particularly those who keeps their private life relatively private, tend to be defined by the characters that they play. The most famous roles for Uma Thurman would probably would be Mia Wallace – Pulp Fiction, Poison Ivy – Batman & Robin and The Bride, Kill Bill. Strong characters from classic movies, though maybe to a lesser extent with Poison Ivy, but certainly her roles in Tarrantino movies gave her credibility, cool & cult status. She’s aloof but not unobtainable, you get the impression she could be fun but she’d have your respect – it’s the Giulietta!

So I set about trying to come up with a way of incorporated these 3 characters into by TV ad.

My first port of call was the costumes, so I trawled the internet until I found the following;

BRAND NEW BRUCE LEE GAME OF DEATH / KILL BILL JUMPSUIT - AMAZON.CO.UK

SAMURAI SWORD (PLASTIC OF COURSE!)

JESSIE J/MIA WALLACE WIG - EBAY

POISON IVY COSTUME - ALSO AMAZON.CO.UK

Between delivery charges & the worry of the Xmas post delays, these essential elements to my idea did not come easy and when they finally arrived, let’s just say I was a little disappointed!

The photo isn’t quite showing that the Kill Bill suit would fit an 8ft man, the Poison Ivy outfit was cheap and tacky and the red wig from the picture wasn’t included – both costumes cost 70quid each! I was the fool I know but I just thought they’d make the ad work and then I’d have then for future Halloween outings! Luckily enough I never planned on filming too much of myself in the outfits so I knew it’d be ok, Oh and I was pleased with the samurai sword and the wig (I rather loved the wig!)

My new favourite accessory!

My Mum found the whole thing hilarious, every time I showed her either the massive Kill Bill jumpsuit or struggled with the wig she howled even louder, which did little to fill me with confidence. But the scene was set. I had my idea, my costumes and props, now all I needed was the execution.

So the plan was to represent the 3 characters. I felt that while the Real People competition shows the Giulietta can appeal to a wide audience the main target market should be young professionals with their eye on style. I think this group would appreciate a slick ad but one with some tongue in cheek humour, something to grab their attention yet still inform and impress with the car. And as I couldn’t afford Uma, I just wanted to give the impression that Uma was in the car (remember I did say tongue in cheek here – post Xmas it’s tough to emulate such beauty!)

I plan to kill it!

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The final stage of the Real People competition is coming to an end and each candidate must now put together a 30 second TV ad for the Giulietta. After being rained off twice (I’m just grateful we’re not experiencing last years deluge of snow, though it would give an opportunity to use the all weather driving feature of the Giulietta!), tomorrow is finally filming day.

Giulietta in Hair & Make up

Giulietta has recieved a full valet inside & out and is ready to play a starring role. Watch this space…..!

Once again, enjoyed a lovely long distance drive in the Giulietta today when work took me up North to film a piece for TV3′s Midweek on cross border shopping and whether or not it is worth the trip.

While I definitely get the guilt other mum’s talk about between time at home and time at work, I must say I was quite chuffed with myself hitting cruise control on the Giulietta, turning up the bose sound system and just enjoying the journey.

The end result of the report was that you’re better off sticking to shopping south of the border as the difference is price is minimal – but when you drive a car you love, it’s nice to take a long journey for no other reason but to enjoy it!

You can check out the piece that aired here - http://tinyurl.com/6q5eurc

Offices in Belfast where meeting took place

I was driving my Giulietta from Dublin to Belfast where I had a meeting with Bord Failte about potentially taking part in Q&A sessions they plan to film and put on their website for tourists visiting Ireland.

I set off with my Mum & little man in tow as I am still feeding him so he is never too far away and felt very comfortable that I wouldn’t even need to use the sat nav as I thought the M1 goes all the way from Dublin to Belfast. I did put the address into the built in sat nav, it’d be rude not to, and besides I wanted to know where I was going once I got to the city, particularly as I didn’t want to be late.

I wanted to get diesel on the way, so pulled into a garage and because the baby was asleep I decided to leave the engine running while I filled up. Mistake no.1. The needle of the fuel gauge didn’t know what was happening so it was a while before it was able to read the tank properly – stupid rookie mistake which I shall not be repeating.

Chatted away to Mum all the way up to Belfast, only paying sufficient attention to the road to be safe but to my mind we drove straight all the way. Mistake no.2. The M1 does not run all the way from Dublin to Belfast, it breaks into the A1. This is something I didn’t notice on the way up, but by god did I notice on the way home when I drove us an hour out of our way! Had to ring my husband (thank God for the built in handsfree phone system!), he pointed us in the right direction, asked why I didn’t use the sat nav (a question I am still asking myself) and assured me that lots of people make the same mistake. (this is why I married him!)

Which is why I am imparting this information to you, to save you to the hassle & the heartache! Miss the turn for the M1 to Dublin at your peril!

http://www.thejournal.ie/budget-2012-fuel-tax-increases-will-affect-almost-all-households-and-businesses-298113-Dec2011

There is little doubt that drivers have been hit badly in the recent budget, with an increase in motor tax, toll charges & of course at the pumps and while many will consider leaving their car behind a little more, this is not an option for the Giulietta owner, she is made to be driven, not sit in a driveway.
But the Giulietta is designed with fuel efficiency in mind. The diesel engines have innovative injectors which control the fuel consumption more precisely, the stop start system which automatically shuts off the engine when the car is stationary, at a red traffic light for example, once it has reached a certain temperature also reduces fuel consumption and emmissions.

The Giulietta is also fitted with a 6 gear twin clutch transmission which gives a smoother move from one gear to the next meaning less gas again and the car will even tell you when to change up or down.

Of course driving or cruising in 5th or 6th gear is fuel efficient in itself and for longer journey the Giulietta supplies Cruise control so your feet and your fuel tank can take a break.

So you see the Giulietta isn’t really feeling the pain at the petrol station, just don’t tell the Government!

Christmas is all about lights. From the people who cover their houses, windows & gardens with them;

To the more modest tree, such as mine, which really only comes to life when you turn on the lights;

A trip into town to see the Christmas lights is a must to get you into the festive spirit and I think most will agree that Grafton Street’s are pretty spectacular;

But the most impressive lights I have seen this year are on my Giulietta. When asked to name a favourite feature of the car it’s understandable that you may be swayed towards the features on the inside which make your driving experience easier, more comfortable or more exciting. But a book is always judged by its cover and the outer shell of the Giulietta is extraordinary. I love the bulbous front and the familiar Alfa Romeo grill moulded especially for this model but it’s the lights that I adore. The funky tail lights are a piece of design beauty you won’t see on another car.

And if you like me frivolous for loving such material things, consider a more formal fact about the lights of a Giulietta, they save lives. The Road Safety Authority are running a campaign to encourage drivers to use their headlights in daylight as well as at night;

Lights aren’t just for nighttime: turning on your lights during the day prevents collisions, which reduces death and injuries on the road.

The RSA’s Daytime Running light campaign encourages road-users to use their dipped headlights during the daytime to improve visibility on the roads.

Using dipped headlights makes it easier to see oncoming vehicles in the distance and prevents daytime head-on and front-corner collisions.

Remember – lights on saves lives

http://www.rsa.ie/RSA/Road-Safety/Campaigns/Current-road-safety-campaigns/Daytime-running-lights/

Statistics

Running your headlights during the day makes a difference around the world:

• Norway had 10% decline in daytime multiple-vehicle collisions between 1980 and 1990
• Denmark found a 6% reduction in daytime multiple-vehicle collisions and a 34% reduction in left-turn collisions
• The US had a 12% decline in fatal collisions with pedestrians and bicyclists in 2004 (from a NHTSA, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study)

The Giulietta has sidelights in its headlights on all the time so not only are you adhering to this safety message, being more visible other road users but as the lights are connected to the ignition, when you take your key out you’re not blasted with the annoying beeping to remind you to turn your lights off. Now isn’t that bright!