Markets

Digg This: Ford Launches the Fiesta with Social Marketing from the Young and Restless

By jim motavalli

Updated on: March 8, 2010 / 1:29 PM EST / MoneyWatch

It's safe to say that the new subcompact Ford Fiesta, due to hit U.S. salesrooms this summer, is not your father's Oldsmobile, and the company isn't marketing it as such. Ford wants young buyers, and it's playing in the space they live in--social media.

The first round of what Ford calls the "Fiesta Movement" delivered 50 European versions of the car to 100 American bloggers last year. Their comments drew 6.2 million YouTube views, 750,000 Flickr views and four million tweets on Twitter.

The second round, just launched, is slightly different, says Connie Fontaine, Ford's brand content and alliance manager. This time the car (an American version) will go to 20 teams of two, and it's not all bloggers. The rules are loose, but the teams are expected to drive and then write, tweet, blog, digg and generally create buzz about their vehicles. This effort is "still rooted in social media, but it's also about getting connected to individual urban markets we know will be strong for Fiesta--including New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta," she said. It's not surprising that Ford is doing this again, since the first round boosted the brand nicely. Plus, Fontaine said, reverting to more familiar corporate language, "we got very solid metrics on an unfamiliar nameplate." Ford sees the Fiesta as a first car for young people. Social scientists say that for this demographic, endorsements that seem to be coming from peers--not mass advertising--is what gets the message across. It is more cost-effective, too.

Ford says it has 7,000 reservations for the Fiesta so far. The ages of the 40 team members (who spent a week at company HQ in Dearborn getting oriented) isn't disclosed, but it's safe to say that from the photographic evidence above that none of them qualify for AARP membership. All of them appear to qualify as cool.

Among the team members:

John Preskitt (owner of a "green" apparel line) and Aaron Enequist-Leiker (a web guy) from Chicago;
Samuel Graber (a writer/producer for the Drew Carey Show and reality TV) and Jen Friel (an art, music and entertainment scenester) from Los Angeles;
Alyssa Gardina (a tweet-up regular who is "incredibly involved in networking herself on a professional and social level") and Colin Alsheimer (a marketer who leads weekly podcasts) from Dallas;
Parker Reddington (a studio engineer and music producer) and Nathan Finn (an emcee who "enjoys freestyling") from Seattle;
Jonathan Paula (owner of the 65th most subscribed YouTube channel) and Jory Caron (musician and Righteous TV producer) from Boston.

The Fiesta "agents" (as they're called) will be given specific tasks. According to the "Team Dallas" blog, "For challenge number one, we have to work with a local artist to create a wall-size mural of the ten best locations in Dallas that really showcase the cities (sic) spirit. The mural will be featured in a prominent outdoor location, and will also be reprinted in a major Dallas publication. At the end of it all, we throw a rockin' party."

Whether social media will help make Fiesta a hit remains to be seen. But Ford's head of social media, Scott Monty, has a shrewd idea of what is at stake. "[T]he tough economy forced marketers to be more savvy and frugal about their efforts, and social media became a natural receptacle for the underfunded," he wrote on his blog this week. "As such, it's grown in stature and maturity, and with the rise of the awareness of social networks in the general public, it's only going to get larger."

Photo: Ford Motor Company