Can Social Media Save Ford?

Until the past year, Ford has been on a sales decline.

With a poor reputation in a market full of low emission vehicles, Ford needed to promote their new Fiesta to Gen Y. A group that has not established brand loyalty....yet.



So Ford decided to forgo traditional marketing. Translation = No paid advertising!

...and a grassroots social media campaign was born. The new Ford Fiesta was promoted by giving the vehicle to 100 social “agents" and having them promote Ford’s new vehicle through several social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, blogs, video and pictures.

This was a perfect fit for targeting millennials, an emerging audience that PR needs to be careful with. Check out my about post about Blogger Relations and Gen Y.



So obviously Ford did its homework. Selecting 100 people from various backgrounds with already well established social networks was key to its success.

Did it pay off?

Well in the first 6 months of the campaign according to Mashable,

-There was 4.3 million YouTube views
- 500,000+ Flickr views
- 3 million+ Twitter impressions
- 50,000 interested potential customers, 97% of which don’t own a Ford currently.
- Ford sold 10,000 units in the first six days of sales.

No doubt a huge success, but can we trust the content? Or is it just sponsored conversations?

Looking for more? Check out Lauren's, Shelley's, Hayley's, Owen's and Sabrina's blog posts on Ford's corporate social media campaign.

Why Toronto Needs a Makeover

Dear Toronto,

I enjoy many things about you! Your exciting nightlife, the diversity of the people...and of course I love your recycling program!



But you need a major overhaul.

Your dirty, smog-creating, noisy diesel trains running through my neighbourhood is driving me crazy. Now you tell me you are going to run over 450 trains every day?!



Although Toronto is considered Hollywood North, we don't want it ending up looking like L.A. on a smog-filled day...



Why go diesel, when we can go electric? Let's mirror the other hundreds of cities that are doing so already, including Seattle, Calgary and Vancouver.

Electric is in!

Come on Toronto, be the city I know you can be.

Help advocate for clean trains! Visit here.

This Blogpost = 1 Planted Tree

This blog post is Carbon Neutral.



An interesting concept, great PR tactic.

How does it work? A company out of Germany is planting a tree if you include a blog post about their initiative. Then email it the link to your blog post, and presto! It will plant a tree on your behalf to offset your greenhouse gas emissions created by blogging.



Although not the answer to all of our climate change problems, carbon offsets are one of the many of tools in the toolbox we can use.



Why Go Carbon Neutral?

1) In many cases, it's impossible to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions to zero.

2) You can help support renewable energy projects.

3) Lots of people are doing it!
Governments
Athletes
Businesses
Bands
Movie Studios

But always remember:

Don't purchase carbon offsets if you can spend the money on decreasing your emissions!

Be weary of anyone who just takes the business-as-usual approach to climate change.

Interested in learning more? Check out this.

I Wish Every Day was Bottled Water Free Day

HAPPY BOTTLED WATER FREE DAY!

Today is Canada's very first Bottled Water Free Day. But don't you wish every day was Bottled Water Free Day?! I do!

In light of this special day, here are the top five reasons why you should stop buying bottled water:

1) There is a global water scarcity. It takes between 3 to 5L of water to produce 1L of bottled water.

In Canada, we are not immune to water shortages. But we are a net exporter of bottled water. So why are we allowing the sale of our water, a precious resource that we are fortunate to have?




2)Bottled water contributes to climate change. Its transportation and manufacturing produces large amounts of greenhouse gases.

This is especially true for Fiji water.

It is estimated that the manufacturing and transport of one kilogram bottle of Fiji water consumes 26.88 kg of water, 1L of fossil fuel and emits 1.2 pounds of greenhouse gases.


3)Bottled water is filling up our landfills. Anywhere from 50-80% of bottled water is NOT RECYCLED.

Have you seen the many Brita commercials? It takes millions of years for one bottle of water to break down in a landfill.





4)Bottled water is not safer nor cleaner than tap water.



Tap water, unlike the bottled water industry, is tested more stringently and more often. The bottled water industry is only paying big bucks to make you think it's more clean. Some bottled water has been known to be just regular tap water!

Think DASANI...

5)Access to clean, safe water is a right. Supporting the bottled water industry allows them to privatize water and with only a select few who profit.



Do yourself a favour. Make the pledge: I will not drink bottled water!

And check out this amazing video on the Story of Bottled Water!