Ford Evolves Real Customer Campaign

Posted by Shirley Brady on May 3, 2011 10:00 AM

Ford isn't media-shy; in fact, you might argue it has a thing for press conferences, which is how its new "Focus Doug" spokespuppet character was introduced.

It's now extending the media grilling experience to its broader range of models. The latest phase of its three-year-old "Drive One" campaign surprises first-time Ford buyers by being taken into a raucous "press conference" setting (instead of the focus group they were expecting) to answer questions about why they chose Ford.

The brand's US marketing director, Matt Van Dyke, discusses the strategy above; check out the new campaign below.

Ford spokesperson Thomais Zaremba tells Mediapost that while customer testimonials are now ubiquitous among brand marketers, they had to get "creative" to refresh the "Drive One" campaign. With that in mind, Ford chose owners who are "relatively new to Ford," she commented, because "We felt they could express their enthusiasm for the brand because we want to talk about what is surprising about Ford to the market."