The ADAM ROCKS is parked in front of the New York skyline. It looks like a scene from the movie “Last Exit to Brooklyn” by Bernd Eichinger and Uli Edel – in reality the skyscrapers are graffiti, creating an illusion that conjures up dreams of the big, wide world. The ROCKS is actually parked in front of a brick wall at the Dream Factory that has been beamed into another sphere by a very talented graffiti artist. Built during the dynamic period of industrialization in the 19th century, today the Dream Factory is the most popular concert venue in Riga. 25 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Latvia’s capital city has again become the cosmopolitan hub it was for the longest time in its history. The Dream Factory offers the ideal stage for the ADAM ROCKS media launch in 2014.
The ADAM ROCKS in front of the New York skyline: The brick wall at the Dream Factory has been beamed into another sphere by a very talented graffiti artist.
RIGA – CAPITAL CITY OF ROCKS
“Welcome to the European Capital of Culture, Riga, welcome to the capital city of ROCKS,” is how Marketing Director Andreas Marx greets the international motoring journalists to the first driving event with Opel’s new small crossover. Every new model is presented to the media before its market launch. Dynamic, lively, creative Riga is the perfect place to present the adventure-loving car. The ADAM ROCKS appeals to young, extremely individual people who prefer the urban jungle to the countryside. Andreas Marx describes three global automotive trends that the ROCKS embodies: “Compactness, individuality and the striking, tough looks of an off-road vehicle.” Opel designer Boris Jacob explains the youngest ADAM family member’s design language to the journalists: “The ROCKS is like Parkour athletes that tackle wild obstacle races through cities. The competitors wear protective knee and elbow pads, just like the ROCKS with its protectors.” Jacob sees the ROCKS as the masculine, muscular ADAM. Men tend to identify more strongly with it than with the normal ADAM. While 70 percent of the gentler sibling’s buyers are women, Opel expects 40 percent of the small rocker’s buyers to be men.
Engineer Matthias Alt raves about the new three-cylinder 1.0 ECOTEC Direct Injection Turbo.
Vice President Communications Johan Willems, spokesman Patrick Munsch, Vehicle Performance Manager Bernd Griebenow and Chief Engineer Small Engines Matthias Alt also make presentations to the journalists during the driving event’s press conference. Engineer Alt raves about the new three-cylinder 1.0 ECOTEC Direct Injection Turbo. With its powerful torque and high refinement, it will win over even the most critical of test drivers. All 40 brand-new ADAM ROCKS are ready to go on this day with the new, sporty 115 hp three-cylinder engine. But that is the only thing the test cars have in common – otherwise they show what makes the ADAM so special: every car is configured differently, so that a bright potpourri of 40 unique cars rolls off to tour Latvia.
ADAM ROCKS and the Baltic Sea: The route on the second day leads to Jūrmala, Riga’s seaside resort town.
The test routes lead from the Dream Factory and pass by Riga’s landmarks and sightseeing spots into the countryside, where the ROCKS has to prove itself on gravel roads. The route on the second day is completely different, leading to Jūrmala, Riga’s seaside resort town. It boasts grand villas, colorful geraniums hanging on balustrades in the sunshine, and the Baltic Sea spreads out like a huge mirror in front of it, almost as if one could easily swim from here to Sweden. Stefan Velten’s road service team looked at every centimeter of this stretch during the weeks-long preparation for the event. Velten has been organizing test drives for Opel for 20 years. During the media event, he and his ten colleagues are strategically positioned at critical points along the route to make sure everything goes smoothly on the road.
a 60-strong team is sending 750 guests onto Latvia’s roads
Road service is part of a 60-strong team comprising Opel and agency employees who will spend 2½ weeks (September 1 – 16) sending 750 guests onto Latvia’s roads. The director of “First Exit to Riga” isn’t Uli Edel, but we have just as creative a mind behind the scenes with Jean-Philippe Kempf. Together with his European PR team, the Alsatian chose Riga for this event. “We wanted a completely different type of location. And ever since we presented the ROCKS at the Geneva Motor Show in 2013, we’ve shown and photographed it in a post-industrial setting – with places like the Dream Factory,” says Kempf. After the idea materialized, hotel and restaurant scouting followed, the routes had to be fixed, invitations sent out, a service garage set up and flights and rooms booked.
Petra Schildgen and their colleagues worked through the night before the planned return flight, bringing hotlines to life and re-booking online, so that every single journalist could return home on time – with other airlines.
pilots strike: the organization team went into overdrive
After six months of intensive preparations, the curtain finally was raised in Riga on September 1. Arriving journalists were greeted right at the airport with a huge poster of the ADAM ROCKS. That is passionate attention to detail. But even the most professional organization is at the mercy of a force majeure event. On the fifth day of the roadshow, Lufthansa pilots in Frankfurt went on strike. For reasons only Lufthansa is familiar with, even the Riga airplane back to Germany was stranded at the Latvian airfield. Now the Opel organization team went into overdrive, it was showdown time in Riga. Dorit Hein, Petra Schildgen and their agency colleagues worked through the night before the planned return flight, bringing hotlines to life and re-booking online, so that every single journalist could return home on time – with other airlines.
The next day only the sharpest observer noticed from the organization team’s bleary eyes that an unbelievable amount of work and a first-class team is what it takes to perfectly execute a media launch.