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.
Great post. I would definitley buy a car from that girl, a dealership somewhere should offer her a job. By the way, I love this blog!
ReplyDeleteThe fact that this campaign is responsible for 10,000 units being sold in the first six days is a testament to how well and how effective it is. They are definitely looking to 'hook' the Gen Y's and I think that this campaign is a step in the right direction.
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