The Party Movement: A Social Media Marketing Case Study. Introducing the Ford Fiesta
The Party Movement: How to Create a “Conversation” Between “Friends”
Most people adopt brands that their friends recommend. To build strong brands, an organization must have a conversation with its “friends” and “recommend” a product. Social media allows a marketer to develop a friendship with their customers and then have conversations where the brands are adopted. A classic case study for this is the recent social media campaign that Ford adopted to introduce its Fiesta, a European car, to the US market.
Ford needed to raise awareness about this product. Its target market was millennials (ages 18-49). Millennials have 70 million drivers, 77% have a social media view, and 28% have a blog. A contest was devised to select 100 people who would receive a Fiesta to drive for 6 months. The contest was the beginning of the “conversation”. Ford wanted to attract 100 very active people on social media platforms. Four thousand people participated in the contest, which meant that initially many people in the target market were engaged. Many of these people were on Facebook and Twitter and spoke about their experience. Lots of people blogged about it. This created a great initial awareness.
Ford used a bit of control so that agents, like the contest winners, were called. They were asked to complete a one-month “mission” that would engage their target market on social media. The agents were chosen for their lifestyle. It was people who went places, met people, who then involved many more friends through posts, blogs, photos, videos. These were people who had “conversations” with their “friends.” Ford quietly recommended that its agents bring the car to certain events that would involve exposing the car to a large number of people in the Fiesta’s target group. The agents did what Ford wanted them to do, they did what they would have done anyway. They posted and blogged about their experiences with the car. Ford now had a strong social media presence for its car.
The agents created a strong brand for the car. People don’t trust corporations, so trust in a brand is built through social media by allowing other people to create relationships (“friendships”) through the car. Ford reached out to those who are listening and allowed them to speak for them, and connect with people like them. These relationships created within its target market allowed Ford to promote itself as “real people” as well as its “friends.” Ford was able to create a brand by creating a conversation with “friends.” Each “mission” was documented on YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter.
Campaign metrics show the success of the Fiesta campaign:
• 11 million impressions on social networks
• 5 million commitments on social networks (people who share and receive)
• 11,000 videos published
• 15,000 tweets … not including retweets.
• 13,000 photos
• 50,000 hand lifters who have seen the product in person and said they want to learn more about the product.
• 97% of those people do not drive a Ford today.
• 38% Gen Y knowledge of the product, without spending a dollar on additional advertising.
• In contrast, Fusion does not have that awareness after 2 years of being in the market despite Fusion receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in additional advertising.
• In the first year, 12,000 Fiesta’s were sold.