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Ford Bets On Social Media For Fiesta
Ford is gambling on the power of social media for the new marketing campaign surrounding the Ford Fiesta subcompact. The auto giant handed over 100 new Fiestas to "agents" selected from 4,000 applicants and created YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter accounts for them to relay their experiences. "Ford is taking a hands-off approach and telling participants not to hold back their opinions, bolstering the campaign's credibility. 'We've told them to be completely honest — that's the only way it's going to work,' Monty told us. 'We won't tell them what to say, nor will we censor or edit any of their content.' So far, it's working in Ford's favor. The tweets on the FordFiesta Twitter page are generally favorable, if a bit dry, as are the posts over at The Fiesta Movement Facebook page. None of the 80 pictures on the Fiesta Movement Flickr page show broken down cars. There are a few hundred videos on the FiestaMovement YouTube account if anyone's got a few hours to kill."
Why is Twitter suddenly such a big deal? Yesterday we hear that Oprah is starting to use Twitter, now Ford. But why?
Is Twitter really some kind of revolution, or is everyone jumping on a random bandwagon because they're afraid they'll look behind the times if they don't?
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
We won't tell them what to say, nor will we censor or edit any of their content.
But we gave them a free car so out of a 100 people majority are probably going to feel bad about writing something negative. It could backfire badly if the car turns out to be a pos, but if the car is at least half decent this seems like a nice marketing move.
Btw, if Lamborghini ever decides to employ the same strategy let me be the first to volunteer
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
And if there are real reasons to be sceptical, such as those as you suggest, then it'll all come out in the wash.
To me though, it just seems like one of those rare instances of a large company respecting its customer base and bravely embracing the internet - good things IMHO.
Getting large companies to get in touch with its customers like this can be really tough.. but when you think about it, and all the wasted natural resources from making crappy products.. initiatives like this should be encouraged.
Right now, I have a lot more respect for Ford than for GM or Chrysler. They are not going bankrupt, and the new Fusion Hybrid looks to actually be a decent car. But if the marketing drones an GM or Chrysler can actually locate these blogger cars and sabotage them, then Ford is going to have a Public Relations nightmare on their hands.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I'm sure these are well optioned-out and checked over before they're sent out, but modern cars almost never run into issues in the first few thousand miles anyhow -- if you want to talk build quality, you need to put 20 or 30k on the odometer.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I find this funny because I'm in the market to buy a new car and I hate all of the domestics (I live in Canada). The only one I kind of like is the Saturn Astra, but it seems pretty over priced for what you get. I wish we had the selection of small cars that Europe has. The prospect of a turbo diesel... oh man sign me up. The only way you could make that any more attractive is to make it all wheel drive.
The actual production run doesn't even exist yet - these are vehicles that were brought over from Europe so the agents can test them and give us feedback. It wouldn't serve us to do something different to these cars if we're looking for ways to optimize the American version with their input, would it? The U.S. version of the Fiesta will be in production in Q2 of 2010. Scott Monty | Global Digital Communications | Ford Motor Company |@ScottMonty on Twitter
Of course there are real reasons to be skeptical. If they wanted to get honest opinion they would have asked 100 people who *purchased* a Fiesta to blog/twitter/youtube about their experience with the vehicle.
From the article: "Ford wants to generate buzz for the Fiesta, which will bring Europe's "small cars can be cool" ethos to America when it arrives next year."
It's illogical to expect a corporation not to act in its own best interests. What is interesting about this promotion however, is a corporation realising that in this age of communication, sometimes its best interests are served by not treating its customer base like idiots. It's not like the whole "free car for 6 months" part is a secret - would you not take that into account while reading a review from such a person?
Why are we so quick to indulge in righteous outrage?