a social media campaign that works; Ford Fiesta

Ford Fiesta’s social media campaign leads the pack in driving buzz about an automotive product. Fiesta’s campaign is nothing short of revolutionary. For the first time ever, an automaker has successfully turned to social media to create a buzz around a new car. Billboards, magazine spreads and television commercials are so 2003. Social media is the new trending topic. Ford has recognized this and created a social media campaign that allows people to advertise their products. Right before our eyes on forums like twitter, people are leading the marketing campaign; turning twitter’ers and bloggers into Fiesta consumers.

This campaign gave 100 people “agents” the opportunity to drive a new Fiesta for 6 months at no charge. In return, these “agents” had to tweet, blog and post videos to create an online buzz about the car. They tweeted about how the ride was, what they liked about the car and their everyday experiences behind the wheel of Ford’s new product. The objective was to create a buzz around the car within the online social media community.

But this is only an overview, check out the whole campaign here.

The strength of this campaign resides in the fact that Ford has recognized the power of the online community and enabled “agents” to promote the car. Since these “agents” do not work for Ford, it is assumed that their tweets and opinions on the car were authentic and sincere. This campaign was so strong because it shifted the power of marketing from the old and tired paid-for-space advertisements to the online social media community. Simply put, Ford let people drive and promote the car because at the end of the day, it is people who need to buy the car for Ford to succeed.

Now, this is still my take on it... so in keeping with tradition, here are the top 3 recommended social media tactics that Ford could use for their next social media campaign:

1. Viral video contest
Ford could create a “Viral Video Contest” that would ask people to create a short 30 – 60 video promoting a new Ford vehicle. The person who creates the video that goes the most viral, would be given a brand new Ford vehicle. Ford can determine the details of ownership/leasing, but the most important part is that this contest would get people to promote the car.

2. 1000th person to re-tweet
The 1000th person to re-tweet a standard advertising message, produced by Ford, would receive a new Ford vehicle for 1 year. This contest would enable people to get the buzz out there about the car, with the potential to reach millions of twitter followers. Good promotion, good prize, good way to promote a new product!

3. Finish this tweet...
Ford could produce a standard tweet that would ask twitter’ers to finish the tweet in the most creative fashion. For example, “Finish this tweet to get a car: Ford Fiesta is ________________”. The person who creates the most innovative and creative finish to this tweet would receive the keys to a new Ford Fiesta for one year. Again, allow people to get in on the promotion of a vehicle so that the message reaches millions of twitter’ers in an authentic, buzz inspiring way.

For more takes on Ford Fiesta’s campaign, check out these reviews by these awe-inspiring people:

Mike Staniforth
Mike Thomson
Johhny Santilly
Jackie Clarke
Megan Vickell