In the past few years, Ducati has been capable of generating excitement
through the representation of their products in magazines of this
sector.
Ducati People is the name of the advertising campaign that
Ducati has used since 1997 to promote their different models of
motorcycles and clothing through the faces of their employees, fans and
riders. But Ducati fans, the new generations in particular, don't know
what Ducati has overcome in the past, with remarkable success, when
confronting the age-old problem of how to market a product.
The first case (1947) was with the Cucciolo, whose name was promoted through the motto "It will take you everywhere". In the mid-fifties, the victories of the Motogiro and the Milano-Taranto became the driving force of Ducati's advertising. Often, the company's riders would emphasize their brand by listing their victories in the various competitions.
Because of the halt imposed by the general
management on the participation in races in the seventies, Ducati was
limited to marketing its bikes only through brochures.
In 1972, one
of the sharpest headlines to promote bikes produced in Borgo Panigale
was coined: "Potere Ducati" or "Ducati Power".
It is necessary to take a step back to 1971, the year that Fredmano Spairani succeeded Giuseppe Montano as the CEO of Ducati. Spairani was the first person to understand that to relaunch Ducati, it was necessary to radically revolutionize the product and images of the company and gain popularity in the minds of the youth of the time. We can't forget that the invasion of the maxi Japanese motorcycles had just started, and all of the Italian constructors found it necessary to update their production to face the competing Japanese. Spairani did the same and began by telling Taglioni to do whatever he felt necessary to the
500 GP that
participated in the World Championship in the 550 class in 1971. The
bike was not lucky, but it provided the base to create, in the same
year, the 750 GT, the first high cc engine twin cylinder street bike
ever produced by Ducati.
From that motorcycle came the 750 Imola
Desmo, the bike that enabled Smart and Spaggiari to win the Imola 200
Miles on April 23rd, 1972. This success was enormous, and if it could be
compared, it would be like the first victory of Capirossi in Catalunya
in 2003.
This victory was so important that Fredmano Spairani ordered a new bike to emphasize even more this significant success. This is how, towards the end of 1972, the motto "Potere Ducati", that in some ways revived the styles and incisiveness of some of the cultural movements that came from the USA, originated.
Reviewing these images, the strong link to the "hippie" style of the time is evident and, not randomly, Ducati chose to use the masculine and feminine sign, at the
centre of which has the Ducati motto to highlight the general aspect of "Ducati style" without differentiating by age, race or gender.
The "art director" of the time was a young journalist who, still working today, remains linked to Ducati through a warm friendship: Bruno De Prato.
