Fiat has announced a Fiat/Google Earth contest where you try to guess a location near the winter Olympics where they’ve hidden a pass for a Ferrari 360 Experience. The winner with the closest guess wins the pass and a Fiat Sedici 4×4 car. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th place winners get a Fiat Sedici as well. You have to agree to their terms which includes allowing them to use your personal data for marketing purposes, or you can enter fake data and just try it out. Once you load their network link, you are taken to the location. Zoom in close enough to the satellite/aerial photos of an area to see green (or red) circles appear. Red circles are spots already chosen. You have to pick a green one and select it to enter the contest. It’s really simple to enter. Go to the contest link and follow the instructions (Flash is required).
This is the second mainstream company to use Google Earth for marketing purposes. The first was Adidas at the end of last year. The number of GE users is growing enormously, certainly a good avenue for marketing.
Of course, if you select the right spot and win with fake data you don’t really win. Reading further down into the rules, they provide 1 million spots of which you can enter just one. So, your chances are about 4 in a million of winning apparently. There’s always the chance the 4 closest choices will be people who enter with fake data. Oh well, guess they get to keep their cars then.
About Frank Taylor
Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.