Baby, you can drive my car

In an economic environment where a new car looks like a large luxury purchase just waiting to be trimmed from an ever-tightening budget, some of the most innovative auto marketers have taken an old trick—the ride-and-drive—and made it brand new. In preparation for its U.S. launch of the Fiesta (a car with a huge following in Europe), Ford has launched the Fiesta Movement. The campaign gives Fiestas to 100 bloggers, Twitterati, Facebookers and YouTube video stars for six months and invites them to complete monthly missions then document their experiences on their various social media.

As the least struggling of the Big Three, Ford has a lot to do to keep its lead intact, and the Fiesta Movement is a key to the apparently edgier and more youthful philosophy of the old-school car company. So how to communicate to finicky American buyers that a European smash hit is perfect for them, too? Give it away to everyday people and let them speak for themselves.
In January, Ford kicked off an eight-week contest: submit a video and tell the company why you should get a free Fiesta for six months. Out of more than 4,000 submissions, 100 folks were invited to special receptions in major markets to pick up their cars. They are already on the road as of April 10 and interested viewers can follow the action on fiestamovement.com. Each month’s adventures will feature a theme (travel, social activism, technology, adventure, style and design, and entertainment), with a challenge for the driver to accomplish and document.
Once the keys are handed over to the test drivers, Ford has no control over what’s posted. True, the applicants did apply to drive the car, so it’s a friendly audience. But Ford is taking a hands-off approach to the content. The strategy is designed to give the car new credibility and relevance among each driver’s readership and social circles. Whether the experiences being posted are good or bad (most are good), they’re authentic, and that’s what Ford is hoping will drive new interest in the Fiesta.
“This was an opportunity for potential consumers to drive this new vehicle through someone else’s eyes,” says Connie Fontaine, brand content and alliance manager at Ford Motor Company. “When you have the opportunity to have these people talk about the product online and you look at the numbers of people that they communicate with, some of those people will be driven to buy the car because of the excitement built around the vehicle already.”