Leading the pack: Paolo Timoni and Piaggio have used a bold marketing strategy to fuel scooter sales.(NEWS)

One glance down from Paolo Timoni's 17th floor New York City office provides some insight to the inspiration behind the industry's most unique and challenging marketing campaign: an endless stream of cars inching along the city's narrow urban canyons around one of the world's busiest transportation hubs, Grand Central Station.

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It's the perfect environment for Timoni to discuss the Piaggio Group's unique marketing strategy that is aimed at opening a line of communication with consumers about the environment. It's a dialogue that appears to be slowly opening the eyes--and wallets--of a gas-happy society.

With a continuous flow of advertising focused on the benefits scooters could have on the environment, Timoni and Piaggio have positioned themselves into a unique position in the powersports industry--a company that caters toward a consumer's social conscience. It's an innovative marketing strategy that seems to be making a difference among American consumers and lawmakers, and it's why Timoni has been named Powersports Business' 2007 Executive of the Year.

Timoni wants to make it clear, however, that Piaggio isn't attempting to make Americans feel guilty over owning SUVs and gas-guzzling cars. Instead, he insists the company is trying to change behaviors and opinions toward scooters as little more than a novelty.

"Piaggio isn't saying to the American consumer that they need to choose a scooter over an SUV," he said, "because we know people love their SUVs. The message that we're trying to convey is that contrary to what the automobile industry is trying to tell you, you don't have to choose between a Toyota Prius or an SUV. Their message is that if you're a bad guy without a social conscience, then go ahead a buy a big SUV. But if you care about the environment, you need to go out and buy an ...