Featuring in an original advertising campaign the Lancia Delta is a car that is now revolutionising product placement and publicity from its appearance in Angels & Demons produced by Columbia Pictures and distributed by Sony Pictures.

The new international film star, featured in an original advertising campaign, is the Lancia Delta: the car that revolutionises product placement and publicity. The version fitted with the new 200 HP 1.8 Di TurboJet was “engaged” for the thriller produced by Columbia Pictures and distributed by Sony Pictures, Angels & Demons, inspired by Dan Brown’s bestseller of the same name in the spirit of The Da Vinci Code, likewise directed by Ron Howard, starring Tom Hanks as Professor Langdon.

This very important product placement was organised by Armosia of Rome and Lancia is celebrating it with an original advertising campaign centring around the claim “One angel, 200 demons”. Action, performance and spirit: these are the three concepts inspiring the evocative commercial with exclusive rights to use key scenes from the film featuring the 200 HP Delta 1.8 Di TurboJet under an agreement with Sony Pictures.

The advertising campaign for newspapers and magazines, developed by Armando Testa agency just like the television commercial, combines some of the most emblematic frames from the thriller with a double image of the new Delta to reflect its double soul: angelic, but with 200 demons under its hood. The 200 demons of the 200 HP 1.8 Di TurboJet (and the equally spirited 190 HP 1.9 TwinTurbo) guarantee the best CO2/HP ratio in their category: maximum power with minimum emissions.

A banner campaign is planned for the internet, with a web competition in collaboration with Sony Pictures in which a Lancia Delta is offered as the prize. The “One angel, 200 demons” commercial continues to develop and underline the “cinematic” theme in Lancia’s advertising. While the commercials made with Italian fashion designer Stefano Gabbana, Carla Bruni and Richard Gere are reminiscent of very short films, the new ad uses actual images from a feature-length film, filmed under the direction of Ron Howard and put together to create the commercial.

The result is an ad that promotes both the car and the film, as the final claim says: “Coming to cinemas and Lancia showrooms in May 2009”. The campaign got underway in cinemas on Friday, April 17th and will continue throughout the month of May. Starting on May 1st, the foyers of major cinemas will feature a special visual identity dedicated to the Delta that “stars” in the film, staffed hostesses inviting people to enter the competition. From May 15th through 24th the car itself will be on show in these cinemas. The online competition got underway on Sunday April 19th and starting May 2nd the 45” commercial will be on air on Italian and satellite TV channels to promote the open house coming up May 9th - 10th in all Lancia showrooms in Italy. The same campaign will also be conducted on all major European markets on the release dates for the film, around may 15th.

The filming of “Angels & Demons" almost a year ago required Lancia to make a special effort, as the Deltas had to be ready, perfectly functional and dependable not only well before their market launch but even before the pre-series was produced: an important date in mass production industries such as the automotive industry. The Cassino plant in Italy had to produce special cars with a number of components that were still in the prototyping stages at that time, specially tested in Lancia’s laboratories and then fine-tuned and modified in a number of details directly in the Lancia Style Centre in response to the requirements of film production. For example, the windows are slightly darkened in regular Deltas to improve passenger comfort, but this created problems for the director of photography, so they had to be replaced with specially made transparent windows.

The people of Rome and visiting tourists were the first to see these special Deltas in action, burning rubber in road chase scenes through and around the Piazza del Popolo, despite the impenetrable wall of security protecting the privacy of the film’s American and Italian stars. Tom Hanks was definitely the first VIP to test drive the Delta. When filming was finished, the cars were flown to Los Angeles for more filming in Sony Pictures’ studios, and then shipped back to Italy by sea.