Change of nature
With many car brands using the same methods to promote and market their cars, it was time for someone to make the bold choice to mix it up and diversify themselves. Ford have taken that step, shifting from advertisements on TV shows to using social media as a stepping stone to dominate.
#Ford wants to make all car launches social-media first campaigns http://t.co/oRaGBrQF8n via @thedrum #socialmedia
— Lawrence Snow (@lawrenceasnow) March 2, 2015
Moving forward
Instead of the usual car-advertisements using high quality shots to showcase the vehicle, Ford have tried something different. They used footage of famous stunt-driver Ken Block driving around the Ford factory in the marketed vehicle. This video trended number one on Twitter as well as gaining more than 1.7m views on the entire film, showing just how valuable this new direction could be. The real statistic that shows they can beat other competitors is that Ford picked up almost three times as many social media conversations relating to the FordRS, as Ferrari did at the release of the Ferrari 488 GTB.
Ford plans to put social media as their main marketing tool with upcoming vehicles worldwide #Ford #socialmedia http://t.co/9W97r45qjq — Cefar Studio (@CefarDesign) March 2, 2015
Reasoning
The Vice President of European communications at Ford, Mark Truby, has stated that the vision of the future is to shift from a model of “primarily of media relations” to a model of “primarily of storytelling”. This means that more videos and ideas, such as the Ken Block video, will be appearing in the future if the company wants to continue its drive into social media. The company plans to work on content calendars around each social network, meaning that the future of Ford will be heavily involving Facebook, Twitter and other social medias it chooses to branch out to.
Read one of my latest #blogs: What we can learn from #Ford‘s social listening. #storytelling #marketing #socialmedia http://t.co/N0wKtpAHXC
— Julian Cavazos (@JulianCavazos) December 18, 2014