Modern Vespa

What would you have to do to get a "long term loaner" Vespa GTS Super 300ie from Piaggio USA? Ride it around the world?

Nope. Nothing so ambitious. All you have to do is:
1. Ride it around.
2. Blog about it once every 5-7 days or so.



There may be some criteria, though. So here's some background on Adam Bruce, the guy who was lucky and industrious enough to somehow land this long term loaner:
1. Owned a Honda CBR-600RR sportbike
2. Founded streetfire.net, a community site for car and street racing enthusiasts
3. Has a car and sportbike-oriented blog
4. Runs a company that does auto and racing-related media production and product placement

I have nothing against Adam Bruce* and none of this is intended as a criticism of him or his blog. Dude got a free Super and, well,, good for him. I'll confess right up front that some of my stupefaction here comes from the fact that I didn't try something like this myself.

What I don't get is why Piaggio gave him a long term loaner so he could do what many of us do every day: ride our scoots then write about it either here or on our own sites.

I'm sure part of Adam's appeal as a recipient is that he's not plugged in to the scooter community but has connections to other motoring enthusiasts. That's great, but I have the feeling none of them are reading the blog and probably don't know about it. I found out about it via Vespa USA's Twitter and Facebook. But Adam hasn't posted anything about it to his own MySpace or LinkedIn pages. He has mentioned it on his Twitter, but hasn't ever mentioned or linked to the blog. If Piaggio USA is hoping he will expose his network to the joys of scootering, it's not happening yet. (No, I'm not cyberstalking the guy. He links to all of these on one of his "about me" pages.)

The blog itself is called"Scoot'n LA: Discovering Freedom on 2-wheels." Oddly enough, it's hosted on a subdomain of his company at scooter.autostream.com. So far, only the four most recent posts of 10 total are about the Vespa, comprising: 1. Gear up when you let friends ride your free Vespa; 2. Cameras and mounts (good post); 3. Riding up to Long Beach; 4. Got a long-term Vespa.

I have no complaints about the content (decent writing, good photos, uses clean and image-heavy "Autofocus" WP blog template), but don't really understand how it serves Vespa or warrants a long-term loaner. There's very little about reactions to riding the 300, the joy of riding, comparison to the sportbike. There are no mediations on "discovering freedom."

So, my quibble: Is that really all you have to do? If so, where do I sign up? The anonymous person behind VespaUSA's Twitter account just sort of chuckled when I asked them that. (No, seriously, I'll write a freakin' book about it if you want.)

*Nothing against Adam Bruce except this: I have left three comments on the blog in the past week and all are "awaiting moderation." One was an invite to join the LA, SD and Long Beach meetup groups. If you're reading this Adam, come on out. Let's ride. It'll give you something to blog about.

Sounds like a bit of astroturfing to me.

Yeah man - I don't get how Piaggio USA picks and chooses who to "endorse" their product.

When I stopped by Vespa Orem in Utah, the owner Charlie was telling me about these two "older" (and i use that with hte highest respect) gentlemen who had been given MP3500s to ride from SF to NYC. I believe they were pretty well traveled guys on motorcycles, but had never used either scooters or Mp3 before. Seems so random to me - Piaggio could easily find two of us from this forum to do thier bidding. But whatevs.

Getting the 'older' guys wasn't such a bad choice IMHO - other experienced riders might listen to their tales.

The demographic for MP3 riders is very much biased towards the older and more affluent who can pay cash on the spot compared to other bike riders (of all sorts, not just scooters).

Here some more long term loans and blogs for yeah that I found Eric. don't feel to bad

http://vespa-vagabond.blogspot.com/

http://www.clayenos.com/vespa/index.html

Keep riding

Jon

I don't know. For the cost of a lease (which is what this amounts to) Piaggio just may get some some good publicity. Sounds like a good investment to me.

Hah, sorry - I didn't mean to cheapshot anyone. My point was that it seemd like a random choice, but hey, I could be wrong.

On other news, the guy they chose to go from Vancouver to New York on a 300, while "riding no more than 150 miles per day" - his shots are really good, but damn - I rode near 300 miles a day and freakin took more pictures than he did! I expected more pics from him!

http://hellforleathermagazine.com/positions/excursion/piaggio/vsp300-lyt.html

Vespa at least promoted the No Age Limit ride some online, though now I can find no mention of it on the PiaggioUSA or Vespa USA sites. It got some decent press, though.
They're also doing this promo with a photographer: http://vespausa.com/promotions.php?pid=20

They also have done some pushing for the Vespa Experiment tour, though a lot has come after the tour was completed. I tried to hook up with those guys when they were down here, but communication was tough and then I got bronchitis, yadda yadda. Would have been a good opportunity to reach out to the community a little.

Still, this isn't another of my "ragging on Vespa marketing" things. It's a "how do I get in on this?" thing.

Yeah - I completley understand. I would of tried to reach out to them before I took off on my cross country trek had I known about this type of stuff. would of been nice to ride across the country on two 300s!

Oh well..next time

PS. You know what's funny? that promo with hte photographer started on July 1st - the EXACT day I started my trip!

I had a friend who rode his Vespa from Boston to Tierra del Fuego (that's the southern tip of Argentina for those who are geographically challenged) and from Singapore to London (though places like Iran and the various Stans) on his SS180.

I called Piaggio USA and said they might want to interview him about his experiences, brand loyalty, and product durability.

No, they weren't interested, and didn't even call me back.

Great thread, Eric.

I've often wondered why Piaggio didn't take more note of fora such as Modernvespa, Vespania, etc. than they do, but I think the loaner case you're referring to is just another instance of "it's not what you know, but who you know."

Piaggio would get a lot more sales in my opinion if they actively looked for product feedback in places like Modernvespa, etc. I'm sure they probably lurk, but they're definitely not interacting enough with their consumers.

I don't think Piaggio really need to invest any time on us here - this community has a tendency to keep on top of pretty much everything the company does without them having to push the matter much. As an example, I would have a 300 if I could afford one, but since I can't, Piaggio could force feed me all the hype in the world and still wouldn't be able to make a sale out of me.

They're surely trying to broaden their market by reaching out to the more motorbikey folk and to the older folk with disposable cash - these are the ones they can make money out of, no?

Well, by the same token, while I probably could afford a new 300 Super, I won't give up my GT 200 with reliable analog gauges for one until they've sorted the instrumentation problems with this model I've learned about here.

Especially the fuel gauge issue, which has come up here time and time again.

They're definitely trying to broaden the market.

The question is whether anything they're doing is actually effective. This was discussed in great detail in another thread:
Ad Age: Vespa Marketing, Timoni Interview
I'd be happy to pick that topic up again!

As I said earlier, if the intent was to use this blog to appeal to the blogger's non-scooter audiences, they're not getting the message.

Also: Why can't I have one? I'd be a good ambassador! I'd post videos every week. I'd write letters to the newspaper. I'd ride to the Panama Canal and back. (Cross country trips are admirable but have become a bit of a marketing cliché by now.) I'd do a scootering version of Feasting on Asphalt. I'd invite Ewan MacGregor to ride to Alaska with me. I'd be the new Mad Monk. Whatever!

Wangta, I don;t know if they're reading this stuff or just Googling around, but the @VespaUSA twitter account just posted a link to your ride blog!

http://twitter.com/VespaUSA/status/3741900997

1) You definitely would be a good ambassador, Eric!
2) If you're serious about the Panama Canal, can I tag along?
3) I'm planning a GTS / Alaska trip next summer. Please tell Ewan he's welcome to join me.