Ford: Blog One

Posted by Bill on Jul 7, 2009 in MeshBlog | 0 comments

Ford Motor Co. is embracing social media to promote the all-new Ford Fiesta, reports The Dallas Morning News.

In an unusual marketing move, Ford Motor Co. gave 100 Fiestas to young drivers nationwide for six months, hoping they will talk and blog about the small, distinctively shaped sedans and take them places where they can be seen.

The Fiesta is the first of several European compact cars that Ford plans to bring to the States. It’s designed and built in Europe and not related to the old American car of the same name. The “Fiesta Movement,” which began about three months ago, was fairly controversial initially at Ford because it allows reviewers to say whatever they want about the cars.

“There was never resistance to it, but there were a lot of questions,” said Connie Fontaine, brand content and alliance manager for Ford. “But we also viewed this as an opportunity to show we have a lot of confidence in this car.”

The Fiesta Movement exemplifies the challenges domestic automakers face in a highly competitive marketplace no longer driven by pickups and SUVs. Aging baby boomers are being supplanted by 20-something millennials as the driving demographic force in the industry.

As a result, analysts say, automakers need to offer different types of vehicles and promote them in nontraditional media such as blogs, Facebook and YouTube. Ford calls these new buyers “lifestreamers.”

“We’ve got a really good story to tell, but it’s hard to reach them,” Fontaine said. “We have to either put them in a vehicle or get someone else they trust to tell them about it.” More than 4,000 people applied to become one of the 100 Fiesta Movement “agents” in the U.S., she said.

Participants were selected largely based on their “social vibrancy” – the number of young people who follow them on the social networks. “Lifestreamers are people who do a Facebook status on what they had for breakfast,” she said. “They Twitter about a cool car that just drove by them.”

I blog or Tweet or Facebook-mention my 2008 Ford Fusion occasionally, even though I paid for it rather than get it on loan from Ford to review, because it’s a good car. A really good car.

A social media strategy works best if the product, service, business, organization, campaign or candidate is worth tweeting or blogging about.

P.S. If you’re reading this, Ford, I’d love to drive – and blog/Tweet/Facebook/YouTube about – a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid…