Ford drives social-first marketing strategy

Ford is driving forward with a social-first marketing strategy, as the car maker continues to shift away from a model “primarily of media relations” to one “primarily of storytelling”.

Speaking to The Drum, Mark Truby, vice president of European communications at Ford, said that rather than concentrate media spend on coverage in car magazines and on TV shows, social media now offers the brand a greater access to a larger pool of fans.

The marketing move mirrors Ford’s commitment to word of mouth, with influencers rather than paid media gripping the brands latest PR focus.

“If we’ve got a cool piece of content then we’ll invest modestly behind it to get it going but for us it’s about that earned media when trying to create that ongoing buzz,” said Truby.

“More of our content has to go straight to the end user. We want to make our car launches events that people are going to talk about.”

Ford’s latest Focus RS model was unveiled in a film, using popular stunt driver Ken Block to demonstrate the car’s handling, in a bid to rebuke the stagnant on-stage car reveal.

The stunt earned the brand the top spot on Twitter’s trending page, with more than 1.7m views of the highlights film.

“We wanted to get over 2 million views for that video,” revealed Truby.

“But a little of that is putting your finger in the air and trying to figure out which way the wind’s blowing. It’s not always about how many orders we generate for car. In this case we’re pretty far out from the actual car being in dealerships until next year. This is more about generating early interest. We want people to think Ford is a car for somebody like them. That’s the challenge.”