A UEFA partner since 1992, Ford used the 2011 Champions League final primarily to promote the new Focus. While it ran an integrated campaign, overall it took a distinctly social media-led approach.
Alongside more vanilla campaign elements – such as pitch side billboards, official courtesy cars and a tweaked version of its global Focus TV ad (to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its British operations) – its activation also featured several more innovative technologies. Foremost amongst these was its Focus Cam project.
As the Wembley final approached, Ford ran a week-long Focus 2012 social media campaign linked to its experiential stand at UEFA’s Hyde Park Champions League Festival.
Focus Cam aimed to recreate fan passion and top tournament moments by capturing multi-angle photos shot simultaneously by 40 cameras. Fans stepped up to a platform for their shot and the images were recorded as video for sharing on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (as well as being available on Ford’s own FordCam site).
The initiative’s objective was to highlight the camera technology used in the all-new Ford Focus.
Comment
A fresh and engaging idea that neatly linked the Champions League with an experiential event and with a social media sharing tool. It also effectively captured fan passion for the specific sponsorship space. It was one of the stand-out pieces of sponsorship activation at the Champions League Festival.
This original project was just one element of what Ford describes as a wider shift from the traditional advertising model for the 2012 Focus. “Having real people talk about our products is far more effective than big brands just telling consumers direct,” said Ford European sponsorship manager Mark Jones.
Indeed, away from the Champions League sponsorship, the umbrella Focus launch campaign was spearheaded by an anarchic sock puppet Doug and human sidekick John, who posted and tweeted content and banter from their adventures in the new car. The sock puppet is designed to be symbolic of the Focus redesign and is the car maker’s self-described ‘license to walk on the wild side’. Since the project started, 41% of 2012 Focus conversation related to Doug.
Digital marketing manager Scott Kelly “Doug is a multi-layered character that’s more fun to get to know in an interactive setting,’ explained Ford digital marketing manager Scott Kelly. “A 30-second TV spot could never afford us the opportunity to engage with our consumers the way the social channels do”.
Links:
FordCam Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/FORDCAM
Making Of Focus Cam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PFLldxcpbA
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