Early Adopters: Ford’s Facebook launch and Dr Pepper’s flick
Longtail’s look at trends and developments in the digital space.
Those of you with a finger on the pulse of global marketing will have noted that a few days ago Ford in the US revealed their new Explorer exclusively through Facebook. This was a significant move even for a company with some pretty solid credentials in the social media space.
The car was unveiled to US users of the social network and Ford aresupporting the online activity with events in cities across thecountry. Leading up to the launch, Ford had been promoting the sitethrough a competition in which a randomly selected fan of the Explorerpage would win a car.
Why am I writing about a multi-million dollar car launch from a globalcar brand in Campaign Brief? Apart from the fact I’m a motorhead,frankly this is a good example of an early adopter brand in action, andmore ‘out there’ than it first appears if you consider that this is thefirst Ford (or any car for that matter that we are aware of) that hasbeen launched completely online first.
The approach is gutsy but not because they were relying on Facebook todrive traffic, no, there were many facets to the supporting campaignthat reached over 50 million Americans, so this wasn’t a classic ‘buildit and they will come’ exercise.
It was the change in tone and approach that was brave, something thatwill increasingly characterise the changed relationship and interactionbetween consumers and brands. Ford has chosen to participate and eschewthe usual corporate paraphernalia that normally surrounds this type oflaunch.
Instead revealing the car at a major automotive show and ahandful of motoring journalists, they have jumped straight into theconsumer space, let their audience drive commentary and opinion in thelargest of the social media networks. I look forward to the case study!
In the interests of being ‘fair and balanced’ I thought I’d mention asocial media campaign that didn’t do so well and caused a few red facesrecently.
Just to set the scene, normally when discussing social media we hear alot of fear from brands about the lack of control and the transparencyinherent in the space: “What happens if someone says something badabout our brand?”
Well, Coca Cola UK and Lean Mean Fighting Machine have parted companybecause they managed to stuff up all on their own! The brand had beenrunning an opt-in challenge for users to let Coke-owned Dr Pepper postembarrassing status updates to their Facebook page to win $1,000.Unfortunately they posted a message on a 14 year old girls Facebookstatus that referenced an adult film. Coca Cola admitted that they hadsigned off the status message but said they didn’t understand thereference!
Carlo Bertozzi – CEO
