FORD FIESTA’S HYPER-LOCAL PROMOTIONS MIX SOCIAL MEDIA + EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING

To drive excitement and sales leads for the North American launch of the 2011 Ford Fiesta, Ford has launched a multi-tiered program of events in four Northeast markets (New England, Philadelphia, the New York/Tri-state area and Washington, D.C.)

The Fiesta Northeast tour follows on the heels of the Fiesta Movement, the savvy, award-winning national campaign that put 100 agents behind the wheel of their own Fiesta for six months and had them document the experience on their social networks.

The local program consists of Ford-sponsored events such as Boston Red Sox Fans Days or Philadelphia’s Fiesta Rocks concert in September, sponsored in partnership with Live Nation. In addition, local pop-up events at dealerships, festivals and local businesses take place in each market. At both types of events, consumers can test-drive the vehicle with a FORD product specialist on a closed circuit TV and check out the voice-activated Sync technology. The best part?  Video cameras inside the cars capture the experience and upload content to thefordcast.com, Flickr, Twitter and the brand’s Facebook page.   The results?

The promotion effectively fosters conversation between the brand and consumers while generating buzz and feedback about the Fiesta.

Location-based Marketing

Four personalized Twitter accounts and FourSquare profiles update fans on where the tour is headed and share content. Consumers also are asked to check in on FourSquare or Gowalla and share their experiences via their own Twitter and Facebook accounts.

To individualize the experience, the tour developed a personality for each of the four markets that reflects the unique target consumer in those areas. Three dedicated vehicles and a road crew of six to eight people travelled to each market.

The Target

Trendy, hipster Tri-State residents who frequent art museums and weekend farmers markets, for example, test drive the Fiesta Lime Squeeze Hatch, Blue Flame Hatch and Tuxedo Black Sedan, which have been detailed with “tattoos” to reflect the personality of this market.  Sporty, spirited, proud Philadelphia folk who jog in the park or escape to the beach on weekends, on the other hand, try out an appropriately decorated Lime Squeeze Hatch, Blue Flame Hatch and the Red Candy Sedan.  New Englanders are casual, fun-loving and outdoorsy types; Washington, D.C. residents are preppy, connected and in the know.

Throughout the tour, Ford is giving away four new Fiestas, one in each market, to consumers who attend an event, support social media or sign up on thefordcast.com.  Props to agency: Mr. Youth based in New York City. While it may be hard for some to get excited about Ford's Fiesta per se, this integrated campaign tries hard to break through with a strong mix of above the line activities/support (TV/Print/Radio) - and more to our interests - a strong hyper-local promotional strategy, automated participatory/social media elements, PR 2.0., Experiential and location-based marketing.    

Solid work all round, however, a few elements would have amplified activities further.  Leveraging emerging technology, adding YouTube UGC/ stronger viral video activity, and most importantly employing (more sophomoric) HUMOUR (perfect for this target audience defined).  Just imagine if FORD had married their campaign with something like Mekanism's work for Toyota ("Your Other You") http://bit.ly/1yJ2qi  Something that would allow users to personalize a Fiesta in a clever, intelligent (and viral way) whereby users want to share the Fiesta with their friends (regardless of the branded content) because it's so cool and fun.   Agency: JWT Team Detroit, Action Marketing Group, Undercurrent.

More on FORD's Fiesta Movement.

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Goodbuzz Inc. is a Digital Ad Agency that creates social media campaigns that entice consumers to play, create, and share brand experiences. Note: Any / all product names mentioned in this document may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies and are hereby acknowledged.

  

Social Media Case Studies [Aug-GB_V6.0]

Adidas recently launched a social media campaign featuring several international sports stars to promote MiCoach, a new personal coaching application - PRWeek

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC is launching an email marketing campaign that includes a Facebook "like" button to get people talking about their new feature documentary called "Restrepo." More at DMNews

STARBUCKS shares how social media helped drive more than one million people into stores for their “Free Pastry Day” Promotion - PRLog

TARGET used Twitter to promote their fall fashion show in New York with a series of videos and ads streamed live on the event's Facebook page - brandchannel

The AMERICAN RED CROSS recently hosted an Emergency Social Data Summit to discuss the use of social media in emergency situations.  More at - American Red Cross

FORBES launched a new blogging platform that allows marketers to contribute content to both their print publication and their website - BtoB

OFFICEMAX has added a Back to School tab on their Facebook page that includes a "Can You Make the Grade?" quiz.  Check out their promotion at Facebook

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Goodbuzz Inc. is a Toronto-based Digital Agency that creates social media campaigns that entice consumers to play, create, and share brand experiences. This is accomplished by focusing on developing "branded utility" - moving away from interruptive 'push' models towards more meaningful ways of connecting. From simple metrics to actionable insights that enable data-driven marketing decisions - Goodbuzz links social media efforts to business outcomes. Visit Goodbuzz or join us on Facebook. Any / all product names mentioned in this document may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies and are hereby acknowledged.

CASE STUDY: STARBUCKS SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Let's get this straight right away: Return on investment in social media is not measured in how many friends you have on Facebook or how many followers you have on Twitter. It's not calculated in trending topics or YouTube comments. It should, in fact, be held to the same criteria other marketing channels are: Did it move your business?

It's done just that at Starbucks, which is a digital marketer worth watching. No one would have guessed at that turn of events during the chain's dark days of early 2008. Sales and traffic had begun to slip for the first time in its history as a public company. Founder Howard Schultz, returning to handle day-to-day management, even admitted that Starbucks had lost its soul.

As part of Mr. Schultz's multifaceted turnaround plan, the chain launched MyStarbucksIdea.com in July 2008 as a forum for consumers to make suggestions, ask questions and, in some cases, vent their frustrations. The website now has 180,000 registered users. Some 80,000 ideas have been submitted, 50 of which have been implemented in-store.

Chris Bruzzo, Starbucks' VP-brand content and online, said amassing Starbucks' 5.7 million Facebook fans and 775,000 Twitter followers could be tougher for a dental-floss brand. "Maybe we have an unfair advantage because in so many ways Starbucks and the store experience is like the original social network," he said. 

Consumers "come in, hang out and talk to our store partners. They sort of got to know us as a brand in a very social way." But he's quick to point out that Starbucks' advantage could easily have been squandered. "If we had approached it not from 'what you know and love about Starbucks' but as a marketing channel, we would have taken this down a path that would have been very different," he said. "This was not [built as a] marketing channel, but as a consumer relationship-building environment." More important than the number of fans, however, is that the coffee chain is beginning to see sales lifts following social-media promotions.

Results


Starbucks posted its first U.S. same-store sales gain in two years for the last quarter during a time when the company relied on digital and social-media promotions instead of what had become an annual TV blitz. The chain partnered with Pandora to sponsor holiday playlists, staged a Facebook sing-a-long and leveraged its partnership with Project RED to drive traffic to a dedicated microsite -- and its stores, offering a free CD with a $15 purchase.

Mr. Bruzzo said that the company is benefitting from a trend "toward this intersection between digital and physical." "We're seeing the beginning of that," he said. "The experiences you have online can translate to rich offline experiences."

The first time Mr. Bruzzo noticed this intersection was on Starbucks' "Free Pastry Day" last summer, when consumers could visit the company website or its Facebook page and download a voucher for a free pastry. Mr. Bruzzo, who visited multiple stores that day, said he was amazed at the number of people standing in line holding coupons they'd printed out. He said the impetus for free pastries was the volume of faithful online followers asking to be included on new products or other company news.

The secret to Starbucks' social-media success is, at least in part, the fact that it plays it cool. "It's not like we started our Facebook community, got to a million people and started pushing offers at them," he said. "We built up a community of people who enjoy engaging with our photo albums from our trip to Rwanda, who loved to have these shared moments around their favorite drinks." Then, fans started asking the company what was going on, and how they could be included.

'Straight scoop’ An added benefit of Starbucks' social-media progress has been the ability to quickly manage rumors that could have dogged the company for days. Last January, a story spread that Starbucks was donating its profits in Israel to fund the country's army -- even though Starbucks doesn't have any cafés in Israel. These days, Mr. Bruzzo said, when misinformation gets out, it's easier to nip it in the bud.

Internally, it's called the "embassy strategy." Starbucks strives to make MyStarbucksIdea and its Facebook and Twitter pages places that "when you go there you know you're going to get the straight scoop," he said.

After ceding its usual first-to-market status to competitors, Starbucks launched two iPhone apps in September, one for general café purposes, with store locators, details about specific blends and nutrition information, and the other to support its loyalty card. Moving forward, Mr. Bruzzo said the company will be looking for ways that consumers can connect with each other from inside the apps.

In the meantime, Starbucks is testing functionality that allows loyalty-card holders to pay with their phones. Starbucks' agencies are BBDO, PHD and Blast Radius.

Starbucks tweeter in chief

Unlike many marketers, Starbucks doesn't run its Twitter feed out of its PR department. The chain's voice on Twitter is Brad Nelson, 28, a former barista who rose through its IT ranks.  When the company was looking for ideas to re-engage with its core customer in 2008, Mr. Nelson suggested that he begin a Twitter handle for the brand, and it now has 775,000 followers. The brand relies on the 28-year old to translate the Starbucks experience for the online community, search out confused or disgruntled consumers, chat about store offerings and even crack jokes.

Chris Bruzzo, VP-brand, content and online, said that Starbucks was beginning to institute its turnaround plan in early 2008 when Mr. Nelson announced he was ready for something new and wanted to get involved in the chain's online efforts.

"I sent him away and said 'Fine, sure,'" Mr. Bruzzo said. But about two weeks later, Mr. Nelson gave him a presentation about Twitter and the opportunity to communicate directly with consumers as questions arise. Mr. Nelson sweetened his pitch by adding, "It's a lot like being a barista on the internet." Mr. Bruzzo recalls greenlighting the project, and after a period of working with Mr. Nelson, let him loose on Twitter.

Mr. Bruzzo gives credit to Mr. Nelson and his "willingness to take smart risks," but shares some of the kudos for Starbucks. "I guess you have to have a brand like this and an environment that's open to innovation and someone like Brad with the passion and personality."

Now Starbucks is finding more ways to use Mr. Nelson. He took a weeklong cross-country drive last fall with comedienne Erin Foley and an Edelman entourage to help launch Via. The group made stops for a web series along the way, passing out product samples.

Read original article.

Doritos® Viralocity | User-Generated Content (UGC) Contest

Kudos to BBDO Toronto (as this campaign is near perfect).  Like the site identifies, the "Internet is good for so many things. But let’s face it. It’s the daily joy of ridiculous wedding dance entrances, cuddly kittens, giggling babies, post-dentist dopiness, and the always-popular person falling down, that keeps us logging on again and again."


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