Fiat Backs Road Safety With LEGOLAND Windsor
Published: 20th September 2002
The new partnership is timed to coincide with the start of Road Safety Week, (23-29 Sept), an annual event, founded in the UK, whose aims are to raise awareness of danger on our roads, and how to be safe while driving, walking, cycling or riding.
As part of its new association with LEGOLAND, Fiat Auto (UK) will be sponsoring one of the most popular attractions in the park – The Driving School – where children between the ages of 6-13 can learn to drive in electric cars and pass a driving test.
After a road safety lesson, which involves watching an instructional video, each pupil drives an electric car around a realistic course, learning to negotiate traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, roundabouts and other cars to earn their own LEGOLAND driving certificate. It’s entertaining and gives the children a sense of achievement while they learn to appreciate road safety at an early age. The Driving School is the only type of its kind in the UK and is unique to LEGOLAND Windsor.
For its part, Fiat Auto (UK) will be providing LEGOLAND Windsor with Fiat Stilo and Multipla models (pictured), for use by their sales and management team. In addition, ‘park vehicles’ such as the award-winning new Fiat Ducato panel van, will be supplied to help with the day-to-day maintenance of the Park.
Fiat Auto (UK) will have exclusive branding at the LEGOLAND Driving School, including the Driving School safety video and the children’s driving ‘licences’.
Franck Ropert, marketing director, Fiat Auto (UK), believes this partnership
agreement with one of the world’s most famous family brands will
be of real benefit not only to both partners, but to the community as
a whole.
"Our target audience of families is similar to that of LEGOLAND
and Fiat’s range is perfectly suited for families with children.
Our versatile Stilo family hatchback will shortly be joined by a capacious
new Stilo Station Wagon. Our new Ulysse people carrier goes on sale early
next year, and our Multipla six-seater mini-MPV, for example, has been
voted Best Family Car by BBC Top Gear Magazine and the Top Gear TV programme
for the last three years.
"But we feel that this initiative will also be of lasting benefit to children and their parents, and mirrors our overall environmental policy, which includes helping students develop safe driving habits."
Leah Kalboussi, sales and marketing director of LEGOLAND Windsor, comments: "We were particularly attracted to Fiat as a partner for LEGOLAND Windsor because we share similar brand values which include quality, creativity and fun. The Park requires vehicles that are both practical and versatile and our new fleet of Fiat models is ideally suited to meet those needs."
LEGOLAND Windsor is situated in 150 acres of wooded landscape, two miles
from Windsor, close to the M4, M3, and M25 motorways. Last year was a
record year for the Park, which welcomed over 1.63 million visitors. The
target audience is families with children aged between 2-12 years. Windsor
was chosen as a venue for LEGOLAND primarily because nine million families
within the Park’s target age range live within a two-hour drive
of its location.
