Ford bets big in digital marketing departure
Chelsea Lambert
November 1, 2010
With the Super Bowl approaching in February Ford’s marketing chief, Jim Farley, has announced that he is directing the majority of his Ford campaign adds towards Facebook, Twitter and YouTube ads. A typical broadcasting ad during the National Football League Championship game sells for around $3 million for 30 seconds. Farley believes this route will be more successful and cost much less. He says, “Customers are spending as much time with the mobile smart phone or online as they are watching TV now, so our advertising dollars have to flow to where the people are.” He projects that the use of this digital marketing campaign will outdo those of any of its rivals. Farley believes that the use of Facebook and Twitter ads will accelerate the word of mouth recommendations to connect with the younger and wealthier generation. He claims that the Super Bowl is a “for unknown brands fantastic advertising opportunity.” Ford is currently recruiting bloggers, social media mavens and facebook friends to submit video applications to drive around in the 2012 Focus. This experiment is expected to create a buzz and help launch the new product lineup.
I believe that the digital marketing campaign of Ford for the upcoming Super Bowl is one that is going to be very successful. The use of digital marketing opposed to the traditional magazine and TV ads have showed a great deal of accomplishment over the past couple years and will only continue to improve. The use of the Internet has become such an essential part of most people’s lives, which is the main reason behind the success of this form of advertisement. The use of Facebook and Twitter not only help advertise many companies such as Ford but they also help connect them with their customers. Not only have these ads shown impressive results for many companies but they have also saved them a great deal of money. With competition among large companies for commercial space during the Super Bowl so high and expensive, it is obvious why Ford’s marketing chief has began to lean towards digital marketing campaigns. Especially with the emerging generation, the use of advertising, such as this, is only expected to show further success. I believe that if other companies take on similar strategies they will also see comparable outcomes. I also believe that the “Ford Focus Global Test Drive” is a very smart business decision for Ford and I assume it will have successful results as well. Ford continues to excel in the automobile industry with the use of such social campaigning due to the fact they know their audience, learn from past campaigns and integrate along with the changing times. As technology continues to expand, I am sure Ford will continue to adapt their campaigns and advertisement in order to succeed in the industry. Most companies have incorporated digital marketing into their company strategies but Ford has integrated it into their events and launches and shown remarkable results.
In the past few years Ford has had a problem with their brand’s image. Ford had developed the reputation that their cars lacked quality. It had been determined that cars from Asian companies like Toyota and Honda were not only cheaper but also longer lasting than Ford. In the midst of all this bad publicity Ford made a great move by hiring Jim Farley as their Marketing Chief. Farley determined that spending their budget on social media would be the most affective way to spend their budget. The reasoning that went behind this decision in Farley’s own words was "Customers are spending as much time with the mobile smart phone or online as they are watching TV now, so our advertising dollars have to flow to where the people are." This idea has shown glimpses of success for example in a report that tracks consumer perceptions showed Ford cars and trucks lead all brands in gains in perceived quality since 2008. Although this is a sign of social media advertising working it has not shown affective enough to put the money that Farley has put into it.
ReplyDeleteIn my mind, this could go either way for Ford. It is a very hit or miss strategy for them to use because it could prove to be very affective for them and they could be a pioneer in online advertising or it could turn out to be ineffective then they will need to go back to the drawing board. The upside to putting as much time and effort on a marketing strategy mostly on social media sites is that it is relatively inexpensive when compared to television advertising especially events like the Super Bowl. An ideal strategy for Ford would focus a lot on social media but also minimize the risk of that failing with a new fresh television ad campaign that promotes the quality and luxury of Ford’s remade brand.