Fleet-ing Thoughts

Vol. 5 No. 3


I think that the metrics from Ford’s ground breaking “Fiesta Movement” will reverberate, and effect the approach to “Tier 1,” “Tier 2” and “Tier 3” automotive marketing for many years to come.



Just in case you didn’t catch his article in Automotive News On October 16, 2OO9:


It's Fiesta time on Facebook et al.

Laura Clark Geist


Automotive News
October 26, 2009 - 12:01 am EST


By orchestrating videos and posts on social-networking Web sites such as Facebook, Ford Motor Co. says it is generating lots of interest for its upcoming small car, the Fiesta.

For example, 4.8 million people have watched Fiesta-related videos posted on youtube.com by people provided Fiestas by Ford.

Social networking sites, widely used by young people, provide automakers with an inexpensive alternative to traditional media such as TV and radio.


"For basically the cost of renting 100 [European Fiesta] vehicles, we have name awareness on Fiesta that is similar to what an Edge or Flex is after two years of traditional advertising," says Jim Farley, vice president of global marketing and Canada, Mexico and South American operations.


The effort began in April when Ford provided Europe-built Fiestas to 100 social media users to drive for seven months. The users agreed to blog and post videos about their experiences on social networking sites while driving the Fiesta. The users were not paid or told what to say.

Each month the users participated in activities, such as visiting a skateboard park or ziplining. Each user posted at least one video a month -- with or without the car -- about those activities on a social networking site or Ford's fiestamovement.com.


The social networking resulted in more then 600,000 photo views on flickr.com and nearly 3.2 million impressions on twitter.com, the automakers says.


Spreading the word


Results of Ford's social networking for the Ford Fiesta


• 4.8 million views of videos on youtube.com


• 3.2 million impressions on twitter.com


• 600,000 views of photos on flickr.com


Here are links to a sampling of postings.


• flickr.com/photos/oprettyboy1/4034044855/


• twitter.com/Fiestavus/statuses/5069520563


• facebook.com/pages/Fiesta-Groovement/75097204622?ref=nf
Source: Ford

Ford also is conducting consumer ride and drives with the Fiesta at events in 300 cities. They started in May and end in mid-December.


From social networking and the events, Ford says in five months it generated 50,000 hand-raisers, people who have signed up for more information. Ninety-seven percent of the hand-raisers do not own a Ford Motor Co. vehicle.

Ford says its research shows that 40 percent of vehicle shoppers are now aware of the Fiesta, higher than awareness for two Fiesta competitors already on the market, the Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit.


The hand-raiser "numbers are impressive given that this was an underground movement," says Wes Brown, analyst with Iceology, a Los Angeles marketing consultancy.


But he warns that Ford needs to follow through with interested consumers "or they will be on their keyboards blogging about how no one contacted them."

Connie Fontaine, Ford Motor Co. brand content and alliances manager, says Ford learned in the Fiesta social-networking effort not to interfere with the creative process. The users' negative comments about the car gave the campaign more credibility, she says.


Fontaine says the company plans to approach the users to help launch sales of the Fiesta next summer.

Ford hopes images posted by Fiesta drivers drum up enthusiasm.

Labels: Facebook, Fiesta, Fiesta Movement, Flickr, Ford, Marketing, Social Media, YouTube

Vol. 4 No. 3

The Coming Ad Revolution, or Why I’m So Enthusiastic About Online Communities…

Esther Dyson’s Observations Have it Right Again

Esther Dyson’s predictive foresight on Internet has harkened back way over decade when she wrote the testament to the Internet age, Release 2.0: A design for living in the digital age back in 1997. She is one of the foremost authorities on the Web today, and so when I read her recent editorial published in all editions of the Wall Street Journal a week or so back (ironically, when I was just wrapping up another NADA Convention), I took note, or more so, reassurance that I am on the right track.

I preprinted it, in its entirety below and want to say that I believe that the power of two way permission customer based, two way interaction and social networks will forever change the landscape of marketing communications in general, in every industry, but the changes will be most profound in the automotive industry – the industry that historically in the US, has spent the most on marketing and communications but has been the most reluctant to change in strategy in tactics (maybe a byproduct of historically having so much money to spend) on how to reach the customer.

…And Next Entry, I’ll Let All Know How I’m Changing Myself, How I’m Redirecting Everything to Focus on, Learn, Create and Lead in this New “Ad Revolution"



The Coming Ad Revolution
By ESTHER DYSON
Wall Street Journal
February 11, 2008; Page A18

While the big news in the online world focuses on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, a more profound revolution is taking place on the online social networks: The discussion about privacy is changing as users take control over their own online data. While they spread their Web presence, these users are not looking for privacy, but for recognition as individuals -- whether by friends or vendors. This will eventually change the whole world of advertising.

The current online-advertising model will become less effective, even as it gets increasingly sophisticated. New players are emerging to devalue the spaces that the ad giants are currently fighting over. Companies you've never heard of called NebuAd, Project Rialto, Phorm, Frontporch and Adzilla are pitching tools to Internet service providers that will enable them to track users and show them relevant ads. This approach (called behavioral targeting and already in service by ad networks that track users through so-called tracking cookies) undercuts traditional online publishers, who employ content to lure users and to sell adjacent ads. Now, the ISPs can sell advertisers direct access to the same users.

Take user number 12345, who was searching for cars yesterday, and show him a Porsche ad. It doesn't matter if he's on Yahoo or MySpace today -- he's the same number as yesterday. As an advertiser, would you prefer to reach someone reading a car review featured on Yahoo or someone who visited two car-dealer sites yesterday? His identity is still private: The ISP and behavioral-targeting networks don't know 12345's name and don't care. They just know what they think he wants.

This market will get more competitive, and users will be barraged by ads to which they will pay less and less attention. Call that public space, a world of billboards and cacophony. Even though the ads will be more "relevant" than ever, users will increasingly tune them out.

Now consider the new world of social networks. Facebook, unwittingly or on purpose, has been teaching people to manage their own data about themselves. Facebook's launch of the Beacon service -- which informs Facebook of members' activities (i.e., purchases) on other sites -- was a PR fiasco. But it still familiarized millions of users with the notion that they can control information about themselves online -- and determine to whom it is visible.

What might seem like a horribly complex and tedious task to their elders -- categorizing "friends," managing news feeds, handling intersecting communities of contacts -- feels natural to the Facebook users of today. They want more granularity of control, not less.

Each user determines who will get into his own garden, whether friends or vendors. Look at Dopplr (where I plan to become an investor), a site for travelers. I list my trips, and see how they intersect with my friends' itineraries. "Oh, we'll both be in London April 4? Let's get together!" Or, "Juan and Alice will be in town next Tuesday. Let's hold a dinner!" You can imagine or visit equivalent approaches for books (a hypothetical Amazon 2.0, new and more personalized), clothes (Glam.com and Stardoll.com), and even money management.

So what's the business model? I'll "friend" British Airways, which will say, "We see you're going to Moscow next month. Why not fly through London and we'll give you 10,000 extra miles?" I'm no longer in a bucket of frequent travelers, my privacy protected. I'm an individual with specific travel plans, which I intentionally make visible to preferred vendors. British Airways, of course, will pay Dopplr a handsome sponsorship fee to be eligible to be my "friend" (just as a Nike rep might pay to sponsor a basketball game and be part of the community). Someday NetJets may show up, offering to ferry me and my friends to a conference we'll be attending together.

I'm far more likely to respond to BA or NetJets within a trusted site, and for a specific offer, than I am to heed their ad while reading a newspaper article on the troubles in Russia. (As for Orbitz, my old standby: After five years, it still doesn't acknowledge my preferred airlines.)

The new model creates a more trusted environment for reaching high-value, frequent purchasers, whether of airline tickets, electronics, clothes or other items. Where does that leave the less-frequent purchasers? Probably looking to their friends rather than to advertising for advice. I'm an expert on travel; my friends may look to me for hotel choices. When I'm in the mood to buy a book or a new computer, I'll check out what my friends on Facebook are doing.

This does not mean that traditional online advertising will go away, just that it will become less effective. Value is being created in users' own walled gardens, which they will cultivate for themselves in real estate owned by the social networks. The new value creators are companies -- like Facebook and Dopplr -- that know how to build and support online communities.

Ms. Dyson is an investor in companies including 23andMe, Eventful.com, Meetup Inc., WPP Group and Zedo.

Labels: Advertising, Cars Incorporated, Esther Dyson, Google, Marketing, Microsoft, Yahoo