Cummins&Partners merges opera with Alfa Romeo in launch of ‘The Performance Piece’
Fiat Chrysler Australia and agency Cummins&Partners are set to launch ‘The Performance Piece’ in celebration of Alfa Romeo’s 105th anniversary.
The performance sees an opera singer effectively sing a lap of a racetrack, perfectly replicating the exhaust note of the Alfa, her sheet music – the tachometer of the Giulietta QV TCT.
Says Ben Couzens, co-executive creative director at Cummins&Partners: “Sometimes the best concepts are the ones that make you scratch your head and ask, “This is cool but is it actually possible?”
Says Jim Ingram, partner: “Alfa Romeo has a rich history of racing performance and Italian style. This idea 
brings those two things together in a way that really does take your senses for a ride. This project represents the epitome of our Alfa Romeo brand platform for Australia, The Romance of Performance.”
Says Andrew Rovenko, creative technologist: “It’s a beautifully simple idea. To execute it, we have used existing technology in a completely new way. Using an on-board diagnostic interface, live data from the tachometer of the car was transmitted via Bluetooth to an application on a phone in the glove box, then the phone’s screen was mirrored via a 4G data connection to a tablet, which was referenced by our opera singer as sheet music.”
Says Ashlin Moore, senior advertising manager: “Alfa Romeo has a rich Italian history, pairing it with opera through technology is a perfect fit for one of the world’s most emotive and evolving brands.”
The Performance Piece will roll out as an online content piece supported by TV, digital, PR, point-of-sale and in-dealer events.
Client: Fiat Chrysler Australia
CEO: Pat Dougherty
Director of Marketing and Product Strategy: Zac Loo
Senior Advertising Manager: Ashlin Moore
Senior Marketing Manager Digital and CRM: Stephanie Hegerty
Creative: Cummins&Partners
Executive Creative Director: Jim Ingram
Executive Creative Director: Ben Couzens
Senior Copywriter: Chris Ellis
Senior Art Director: Aaron Lipson
Creative Technologist: Andrew Rovenko
Digital Creative Lead: Sang-wun Kim
Digital Creative: Maurice Moynihan
Producer: Katherine Muir
Group Account Director: Magdalina Triantafyllidis
Planning Director: Theo Erasmus
Senior Account Manager: Nikia Shepherd
Senior Designer: Rowan Hammerton
Graphic Designer: Jacob Redding
Editor: Ed Gurr
Executive Digital Producer: Celia Karl
Creative Content Analyst: Lauren Brumley
Production: Guilty
Director: Christopher Tovo
Executive Producer: Jason Byrne
Producer: Tom Davies
Post Production: Manimal
Senior Editor: Ryan Brett
Producer: Grace Taylor
Sound: Risk Sound
Sound Engineer: Paul Baxter
Producer: Tony Le
49 Comments
Interesting. The resultant sound is kind of annoying, though.
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Fuck that was irritating.
Very clever. Love that a car brand has broken the mould and finally done something different.
It’s not a car, it’s a content piece.
I like it.
Well done.
Awesome.
Opera merged with classic luxury, which is the embodiment of Alfa Romeo.
It’s spot on and it’s different.
As for the technology used, super idea and not one I have seen used before.
Good work! 🙂
Awesome.
Opera merged with classic luxury, which is the embodiment of Alfa Romeo.
It’s spot on and it’s different.
As for the technology used, super idea and not one I have seen used before.
Good work! 🙂
Love it! Gave me shivers, the scenery, the roar of the engine and the singers powerful voice combined are a really strong mix. As an Alfa lover I think this ad is beautiful and different. Just like the cars.
This reminds me of a crowd sourced, 3D printed, QR code on a flying drone.
That was horridly annoying, like discordant chamber orchestra performances that nobody goes to.
Imaginative concept, coupled with exceptional cinematography, resulting in a visually alluring piece. Although the singer doesnt seem to reach her cruscendo, it builds tension allowing you to enjoy the full range of the cars capabilities. Alfa being iconically Italian, the opera singer seems conspicuous, however the idea of composing directly from the vehicle is quite intriguing. I like it.
Ask why, what is wrong with clients?
This is a great example of why advertising is totally irrelevant in the modern world. Pointless use of client money.
Not to mention a minute long build up of advertising wankery that is just painful.
Great idea, brilliantly executed = metal potential in my book
Superb
Really poorly executed corny idea. It might have looked great on paper if you like corny stuff, but the reality is horrid.
The PR write up is hilarious! AdvertWank.
Nope. Nope. Nope.
Just because you can make a connection between a european noise and another european noise doesn’t mean you need to.
That was horrible.
Great one guys, beautifully shot and interesting idea. Great film
Nice ad, I love the start when they show her putting her lippy on and the driver putting on his gloves. Gets you geared up and ready for what turns out to be an exciting and fun ad that mixes up two iconic Italian things. I think Alfa should be very happy with what has been produced.
It’s nicely shot that’s for sure
but i just found it a little uninspiring. certainly not something I’d talk about/remember
Still, each to their own
well done ed the editor
This is excruciating, as are the positive comments on this blog. Beautifully shot? Full of cliches more like it. Feels like a piss poor attempt to recreate ‘Sound of Honda/Ayrton Senna’ that picked up awards a couple of years back. Awards always come at a cost, the client well and truly picked up the tab on this one. Has definitely reserved the most unwatchable piece of content for 2015 though.
I wasn’t really sold on the Romance of Performance when they launched with it. But this actually works, and it better than any car content in the last few months. It’s sexy as hell, makes the car look great and makes my balls tingle ever so slightly. Good one.
I give it 4 out of 5 ad boners!
this is right for the brand
hm, 52 000 views, 142 likes and 100 dislikes.
Either that’s a whole bunch of indifferent people, or someone forgot to tip the viewing robot.
As a content piece it’s powerful and intriguing and I like it, lads – well done.
Though I’ll be interested to see how it stacks up as a stand-alone-TVC (if it ever does) because as a selling tool to get a punter to part with upwards of fifty grand for a motor, it’s simply not enough of a ‘celebration’ of 150 motoring romance, to influence the sale in the way that ‘Impossible Dream’ was for Honda.
Thoughts?
I think this is a terrific visual and audio masterpiece, the juxtaposition between the opera singer and the cars sound is amazing, this should do really well at award shows. 1 + 1 = Potato
My god these comments that “explain” the idea while praising it are so painfully transparent.
We get the idea, Cummins. It’s not complicated. That’s not its problem. It’s just really bloody annoying. A noble effort but the result is simple: it doesn’t sound nice.
I like it, nice to see something different, more interesting than the usual “oh look these very attractive people are driving semi recklessly for no reason”
That is just sooooooooooooooooo horrible.
Love it, very well done
The idea is contrived, the execution is lame, the PR release is wanky and the Cummins positive comments are embarrassing. Get back to what you do best, taking the piss out of work like this.
The fact that so many Cummins/Alfa commenters feel the need to puff this up here tells you everything you need to know about this spot.
Even they can see it hasn’t worked. I’m amazed they even PR’d it.
I liked advertising more when it didn’t try so fucking hard all the time.
It’s an Afla. It sells itself. Insert funny gag about Italians, maybe even an Italian mama joke and get the fuck out of the way.
Painfully horrible.
The is one of the best examples of why you shouldn’t use technology for the sake of it.
It’s like they’ve tried to shoehorn tech into it to justify it’s lowly existence, poor concept badly executed.
Honda Sound of Senna and VW GTI Play the Road set the benchmark for automotive and music, this fell far short.
very funny. Well done.
I want my concept back
This is really annoying and a complete waste of the client’s money.
It’s is the sound of an agency with no new ideas falling flat on their face.
Well said @Black Bean. I think it’s fair to expect more from Cummins than this.
For an agency with some impressive talent, not to mention a first-rate client list, it’s disappointing how little work of note we see from Cummins. If this is their idea of good, as all the staff comments here would seem to suggest, they have a real problem.
Goodness me, I think I just poo’d in my mouth.
I’ll tell you how bad this is.
I could watch, “Down,down,down”, nonstop in solitary for 24 hours a day, for a week than have to watch this again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEYAIfOzjsE
For the first 30 seconds, I was convinced this was a piss-take of all that is pretentious and wanky about our industry, all wrapped up in the caricature “Creative Technologist”… Sadly, it wasn’t a satire.
Didn’t need the technologist at the beginning . Would make sense without it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjyWP2LfbyQ
The only thing worse than this ad is the blog comments from Cummins’ suits/receptionist/junior creatives. Truly mortifying.
Not quite the bottom of the barrel but right down among the sediment.. Hard to understand why anyone would be so incredibly dumb to buy the concept
Yeah – bloody annoying operatic screech – maybe should have used ‘King of the Mountain’ by Midnight Oil and tossed the Alfa around Bathurst?
Brilliantly edited though.
Whooooo – o – o- ohhhhhhh -ah – ah ahhhhhh – o – o – o – ooooooo – ful
Least you could have done, was to make it in tune.
Better yet, visualise the notes from the car as a musical score.
Creative technologist = “I’m the guy who plugged this thing in the dash”