The Ford Fiesta Movement 2 – My Entry

February 7, 2010 in Advertising/Marketing Business, Automotive Industry | No comments

I’ve mentioned the Ford Fiesta Movement on here before but if not, check out the site so you can see more about it. Now that the original Movement is over, Ford is launching the Fiesta Movement 2.  This one’s a little different, for a couple reasons:

  • Applications are in pairs, instead of individual.
  • What the chosen agents will be doing is sort of a mystery – here’s the description:

In anticipation of the Fiesta’s US launch, for the next chapter of the Fiesta Movement we’re handing over creative direction for the all-new 2011 Ford Fiesta’s advertising and promotion to our fans.

You’ll need a creative vision and passion for the Fiesta. We’ll provide the public spaces and help connect you to local creative talent. Together, we’ll bring your ideas to life.

Your team will also have access to an all-new 2011 Ford Fiesta for the duration of the program (with gas and insurance) and a shot at winning a brand new Fiesta for yourself and your teammate.

All that leads me to believe there’s going to be a lot of event marketing, local promotions and other marketing related parts in this Fiesta Movement, which is why I think I found the perfect partner in Clifton Alexander of Reactor Design Studio. Clifton and I spent a lot of time thinking about what would help us stand out among the likely huge crowd of applicants, and it came down to a couple simple things.

First, Clifton and I know each other, but we’re not best friends.  Most of the applicants will be best friends, spouses/couples or even family members.  He and I will get to know each other as part of this Movement, and that should make our thought process a little different. Second, we both love cars and are involved in the creative industry but on different parts of the spectrum.  I’m an account guy at a B2B shop; Clifton’s the owner/creative director at a small design shop. And the contrasts between us gave us the inspiration for our video entry, which you can see below:

So there we are – the application is in and I’m ready to get started.

To Scott Monty, Sam DeLaGarza and the rest of the Fiesta Movement team, you may find a pair as good as Clifton and I, but you won’t find better. We’re ready to prove it, so let’s get started!

In anticipation of the Fiesta’s US launch, for the next chapter of the Fiesta Movement we’re handing over creative direction for the all-new 2011 Ford Fiesta’s advertising and promotion to our fans.

You’ll need a creative vision and passion for the Fiesta. We’ll provide the public spaces and help connect you to local creative talent. Together, we’ll bring your ideas to life.

Your team will also have access to an all-new 2011 Ford Fiesta for the duration of the program (with gas and insurance) and a shot at winning a brand new Fiesta for yourself and your teammate.

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Twitter Good Intentions

November 23, 2009 in Advertising/Marketing Business | 7 comments

As I start writing this post, I feel slightly hypocritical. Over the past few months, I’ve scoffed at many social media articles, seminars, webinars and blog posts because it’s become the topic de jour for just about everyone in our industry. I’ve read plenty of Twitter articles too, about how companies like @ford, @dell, @southwestair and others have gotten tangible results and/or sales from it.  I thought I might be able to add a slightly different take to it though, by taking a look at six of companies I’ve dealt with on Twitter – two of the best, two of the mediocre and two of the bad.  I’m also writing this with the thought that I will utilize Google Wave to try and draw more insight for a follow-up column.  Want to get it on that or just want to share your opinion?  Leave a comment please. Here we go…

The BestScotts Lawn Care

I love Scotts.  They make a great product.  Just as important, they know exactly who they are, what people want from them and what they’re good at – Grass.  For years, they’ve had a great email newsletter program that delivers localized information based on your zip code.  By that, they know what kind of grass you likely have and what you need to do to care for it properly.  Their Twitter presence has a similar mission and they stick to it, almost 100%.  A company like Scotts could try and branch off into talk about outdoor living, sports, pets, and other things…but they don’t.  They could also get very retail-ish by talking about sales, rebates, coupons, etc. frequently, but they don’t.

My interaction with them started because of the mole problems my girlfriend was having at her house.  I posted a message @ them and got an answer quickly, plus a follow-up after I asked another question.  Quick response time, sticking to what they know and not pushing sales because they know their product is #1 and people will buy it if they understand it.

Ford Motor Company

Yep, Ford’s gotten tons of praise for their social media efforts already.  But I’m going to give them some more.  Why?  Above all else, they’re doing a fantastic job in social media, from Facebook and Twitter to Flickr and YouTube, and their great aggregator-type site – TheFordStory.com.  And yeah, I’m a car nerd and an unabashed Ford fanboy.

Scott Monty has gotten plenty of praise for the way he’s led Ford in social media, and deservedly so.  He’s now got Ford running ten different Twitter accounts, realizing that the same people who follow @forddrivegreen are likely not the same as @fordmustang followers.  They are just finishing up the Fiesta Movement, a social media-led effort to gain publicity for the Ford Fiesta small car – the North American version launches this week at the LA Auto Show so we’ll soon see how this effort pays off. And I was chosen to be part of the Taurus Game Day Experience – more on that here

I admire the way ten different accounts feed off each other without duplicating, or forgetting each account’s mission. And I admire that even with 20,000 followers of the main account alone, I frequently get replies when I mention Ford or ask a question.  Ford is changing perceptions in every tactic of their communications strategy, and this is no different.  I am shocked that more car companies haven’t jumped in yet; the only ones that have really embraced it seem to be the Detroit 3.

Honorable Mention: I also really like what KC ad agencies @c3kidsmart and @callahancreek are doing – sharing interesting facts & research into the fields they specialize in – kid marketing and retail, respectively.

The Mediocre

ExactTarget

I use ExactTarget’s email platform on a daily basis and am quite familiar with it.  It’s an extremely powerful system that certainly isn’t perfect, but it’s the best of its breed.  Their slogan is “Relationships. Delivered.”  With a slogan like that, you’d expect them to have top-notch social media.  I really can’t find anything glaringly wrong with the way they manage Twitter; I’m just not as impressed as I expected to be.  They share plenty of info but I just don’t find much of it useful. ExactTarget is chock-full of powerful capabilities that are not easy to find; they should know this and use Twitter to share tips, tricks, tweaks, etc.  For example, they launched a fairly major software upgrade in early November and didn’t post anything about it – that’s a miss, in my mind.  EDIT: after an extremely nice comment from Dawn DeVirgilio of ExactTarget, I realized that I was incorrect about that statement – apologies ET! You can do better ExactTarget. You should do better.

Renewal by Andersen - Kansas City

This is a locally-run company that is tied to Andersen Windows/Doors, one of the biggest brands in the building industry.  Being a local company with only 167 followers, maybe I’m being too hard on them.  But there’s a reason they only have that many – they rarely share anything of value.  Looking through pages & pages of Tweets, almost every one of their posts is a testimonial from a customer.  Those are great, but don’t you have anything else to say?  They don’t retweet anything and they don’t ever respond to people or participate in any conversations.  It’s like they aren’t sure what their objective is in being on Twitter, nor who their target audience is.  RenewalKC, I’ll tell you – your objective is to share interesting content related to windows & doors to build awareness, trust and top-of-mind awareness with potential customers.  Your secondary objective should be to drive leads through promotions & offers, which I’m sure you’re running in-store…they just don’t get posted to the web. And your target audience is Kansas City homeowners, of which there are many.

Honorable Mention: @gmblogs loses points for using “blog” in the name of their main account; it’s not a blog, guys.  And they lose points for being decent, just not as good as Ford in this area.  I give them a lot of points, however, for being here when Hyundai, Mazda, Nissan, among others, are not. And they’re better than @toyota and @chrysler.  Toyota uses one account for Lexus, Scion and Toyota – really guys, your target audience for Scion and Lexus is the same?  Why don’t your TV spots show all three brands together?

The Bad

Sprint Care

Sprint Care, you’ve got a singular mission – managing questions & complaints.  Granted, that’s not an easy job – it seems like nobody is really thrilled with their wireless provider; Verizon is the “best” and their satisfaction rate was in the 50% range, if memory serves correctly.  But Sprint, if you’re going to have this account, you need to use it the right way – with a bit more honesty and transparency than normal customer service whenever possible.

Long story short – the service in my apartment is spotty.  I live less than 200 yards from a major KC highway, on top of a hill on the top floor of the building so service should not be a problem.  On Sprint’s coverage map, I’m in the solid green area.  Yet, my signal fades in & out and never is anywhere near full strength.  I went to a Sprint store, called customer service, emailed customer service and as a fourth course of action, I posted a message @sprintcare.  They responded quickly, asking me to send them an email at a special service email address.  I’m thinking, “Awesome, this is going to solve my problem!”  So I email them and quickly get another Twitter message telling me they’re looking into it, which was, again, great.  Then a month goes by and I’ve heard nothing.  I post a couple messages @sprintcare and email them again, before finally getting a response…the same generic response I’d gotten from customer service six weeks ago.  I responded again and haven’t heard a thing since.

Sprint, if you really wanted to differentiate yourself, you could start with a little empathy and acknowledgment of a less than stellar service area, rather than blaming me, my building, the weather, terrorists and the full moon for the problem. Even if you didn’t solve it, at least you could acknowledge that it’s an issue.  But no, you didn’t, so you end up in my bad list because you are creating unrealistic expectations with this Twitter account.   Live up to it, or quit doing it.

NTB

I recently took advantage of a Buy 3, Get 1 Free offer that NTB was running on Yokahoma tires – I’d utilized a similar deal at Firestone a couple years back and figured this deal would be just as good.  Then, I got to NTB and found out my cost was about 20% ($125) higher than I thought, due to them charging a separate installation fee, on top of the tire costs, something Firestone hadn’t done.  I was irritated but paid it anyway, because I needed the tires and I didn’t want to make my girlfriend pick me up and drop me off again another day.

I went online to their site and sent a message to the customer service dept., letting them know I didn’t like their somewhat shady promotional tactic.  Never heard a peep.  I also posted about my experience on Twitter and a couple days later, got a response from @NTB_tires.  After some back & forth, they asked me to email customer service; I told them that I already had done so and gave them my email to find the message.  They apparently never found it because all I got from NTB was a generic, “we value your business” apology.  They’re on the bad list because of the apparent disconnect between their web customer service and their Twitter manager – can one not talk to the other?  Apparently not, and that should be a prerequisite for any company on Twitter.

There you have it…a few opinions and stories from me.  Now, what companies have you dealt with on Twitter?  What have your experiences been like?

If you want some more to look at, check out my companies list on Twitter HERE.

I would also welcome any of the companies discussed above to offer their opinions.  I’m curious to see how many of them have monitoring systems in place that will alert them to this post.  If I had to bet, I’d expect a response first from Scott Monty at Ford, followed by Scotts maybe.  Scott, don’t let me down… :)

Dawn DeVirgilio

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Let’s Get Down to It – Good & Bad about the 2010 Ford Taurus

October 4, 2009 in Automotive Industry | 3 comments

What does Ray Lewis have to do with the 2010 Taurus??

What does Ray Lewis have to do with the 2010 Taurus??

Pros

  • Ray Lewis: I’ve decided that the Taurus is the automotive equivalent of Ray Lewis (or a linebacker in general).  By that, I mean there’s no getting around that this thing is a big car.  It weights 4,015 pounds* and that makes for a big car. But dang does it move, just like Ray Lewis.  It handles & moves that weight well, both in a straight line and through the curves. I can only imagine how well the SHO model does.

* For comparison, my 2003 Mazda 6 weighs about 3,300 pounds and a 2WD 2009 Ford F-150 weighs in around 4,700 pounds.

  • Power: The 3.5 liter V6 in the Taurus make 265 horsepower and it moves the two-tons along surprisingly well – it blows away the 3.0 liter 220 hp V6 (a Ford/Mazda engine) in my Mazda, both in outright speed and in smoothness.  It pulls well throughout the rev range and really takes off after 3,000 RPM and never feels strained.  And it’s quiet…even when the go pedal is on the floor.
  • Control of that Power: the 6-speed automatic transmission managing all that power is a gem.  It shifts smoothly and handles hard driving using the manual shifting mode (with paddle shifters) great.  It’s also geared wonderfully, with the engine only turning around 2,100 RPMs at 80 MPH.
  • Looks: I think the 2010 Taurus is one damn good-looking car.  I love the front/side profiles the most.  The back looks a little too high-up and I wish it had dual exhaust pipes, rather than the single muffler with twin tailpipes.  But I’m nit-picking – I love the looks of this thing.
  • Gas mileage: though I do it with my own car, I didn’t keep exact mileage with the Taurus during my time with it.  However, I’m pretty sure I got about 25-26 MPG with the thing, which is phenomenal considering it’s weight, the speed I was driving (80 for the most part) and the fact that I was definitely not hypermiling.
  • Quiet: even at those speeds, it is still incredibly quiet inside.  I think my pre-production test car had a slight driver’s side window air seal leak, so I imagine the production ones are even better.  I will state with almost certainty that it’s quieter than my parents’ 2006 Lexus ES330, the quietest (until now) highway I car I have experience with.
  • Comfort: anybody should be able to find a comfortable seating position in the Taurus.  It’s got the usual power seats, plus the pedals are adjustable and the steering wheel tilts & telescopes.  If all that wasn’t enough, it also has Multicontour Seats with Active Motion™, which basically means massaging seats.  Going into this trip, I thought they would be a gimmick, another gadget to make the car seem high-tech.  I tried them out during the 4 hour trip across Missouri and they definitely helped keep my butt/thighs comfortable.  Ford’s website says it also massages your back, but I couldn’t feel it and my back felt no different than it does after trips in other cars.  Oh yeah, those seats were also heated and can be also be cooled, though my loaner didn’t have that feature.
  • The Cockpit Feel: I’ve been excited about this car since the first spy shots over a year ago.  I strongly encouraged my parents to go check one out, which they did.  One of the things they ended up not liking about it is the center console, which is massive.  When you get in the car, it’s one of the first things you notice because it’s wide and high up, probably 3-4″ higher-up than most cars you’re used to. I ended up liking it though, because my elbow rests perfect on it and all the controls are right there for you to use, without any need to look away from the road – they’re all right in your field of vision, which may be why it’s designed the way it is.
Yes, its big. But I ended up liking it.

Yes, it's big. But I ended up liking it.

  • Sync Technology: it’s advertised a lot on every Ford, Lincoln or Mercury model now…and for good reason, it rocks.  Basically, it lets you quickly & easily control almost any MP3 player or phone using voice commands.  It also provides you with 911 Assist, emailed Vehicle Health Reports, real-time traffic conditions, turn-by-turn directions and other information.  I didn’t try any of those features, but within five minutes, I had my Palm Pre hooked up via Bluetooth and my iPod via USB, with both of them connected via Sync.  Driving down the road, I was quickly able to pick out a song by artist or song name and have the car play it, then pause it automatically and pick out anyone from my phone’s contact list to call.  Incredibly seamless and easy…and a great way to impress your friends.  However, Sync is not good at recognizing a lot of song names/artists and has a lot of trouble picking up sound if you have the windows down.  Hopefully those are the kinds of things that can be improved via software updates over time.  The other nice thing about Sync is that it’s available on models like the Focus all the way to up to the Lincoln Navigator, though specific features vary by model.
  • Music, Music and more Music!: with my iPod and phone hooked up through Sync, plus the Sirius satellite radio built in, I didn’t even notice that the Taurus also had a 6-disc CD changer and AM/FM radio.  Amazing amount of options for in-car entertainment, all of which was welcome on the road trip.
  • Quality: through & through, the car feels high-quality.  The doors are heavy and close with that heavy, satisfying “thunk” noise that the best luxury cars have.  Most of the interior materials are soft and of the proper quality for a car in this price range too.
  • Creating Believers: when people see, drive or ride in this car, their perception of Ford is going to be altered.  It happened when I took one of my bosses to lunch in it – he’s someone that probably wouldn’t consider Ford for his next car.  He told me that, and he also told me that he’ll probably take a hard look at Ford now, even if he doesn’t want the Taurus or a car in that range.
  • Other Features/Technology: my car was an SEL, which is the second of four levels of price.  Besides the things I’ve talked about, the Taurus featured these things:
    • Reverse sensing system: being a male and a car fanatic, I dismissed this option as stupid, for “people who don’t know how to drive.”  Well, after driving that car, I’m glad it has it.  The back end of the Taurus is so big that it’s really, really tough to tell how close you are to anything.  I’d welcome the rear-view camera available on the SHO model.
    • Intelligent Access/SecuriCode: it’s the newest fad in the car world – eliminating the key and giving the driver a key fob to carry and a button for starting/stopping the car.  And SecuriCode isn’t new – Ford’s had it on lots of different vehicles since the 90’s – it’s convenient but always was kind of an eyesore below the driver’s door handle – they fixed that on the Taurus (see below).  I enjoyed being able to access the car by pushing the bottom of the SecuriCode pad and not needing to take the fob out of my pocket.
      • Appears with touch, invisible otherwise

      Appears with touch, invisible otherwise

    • Ambient Lighting: this feature adds subtle lighting all over the cabin.  The lighting can be changed to six different colors, with three levels of brightness for each color.  It adds a huge touch of class/luxury to the car, and it’s useful for seeing things at night too.  Best of all, it’s not distracting in the least to the driver.

Ambient Lighting - Classy and Luxurious

Ambient Lighting - Classy and Luxurious

Cons

  • Cost-Cutting: even with a feeling of quality in many places, there are still obvious areas where Ford cut costs. The most obvious of these, to me, is the power windows.  The driver’s side window has full automatic up/down capability – the other three windows are regular power ones…like my ‘88 Taurus had.  Lots of cars in this price range have this,  like my parents’ Lexus and their new Toyota Highlander – c’mon Ford, how much would adding that cost? This was also apparent in the overhead lighting area, where you normally find lights, a sunglasses holder, garage door opener, moonroof, thermostat/compass readout, etc.  In the Taurus, there was nothing but a couple lights that felt like they were right out of a $15,000 Focus.
  • Gimmicky-Technology: as much as I liked a lot of the technology in the car, I started thinking about what this car might be like in 5 or 10 years…when some of that stuff needs to be repaired.  With the climate control, stereo, Sync, etc. all part of one large electronic unit, I shudder to think what repair/replacement for something like that might cost.  I’m also a little wary of the Intelligent Access – I think I’d just rather have a key still.  Maybe it’s silly, but I don’t know that the slightly-added convenience is worth the trouble you have the first time the batteries in the key fob go dead and you can’t start the car.  Or you accidentally get it wet or something… I haven’t even talked about some of the features this car has on higher-end models, like Adaptive Cruise Control and BLIS (Blind Spot Information System).  Features like these are becoming more common and I hate it – it makes things easier for bad drivers, and that’s scary.  With so many potential distractions in the car, the probability of people not paying attention goes up and, I know, these features are supposed to help cover against that…but I think they also contribute to people being terrible drivers.  And we don’t need any more of them in this country.
  • Paddle-Shifters: I was fairly shocked to see that paddle shifters were in this car.  These allow you to manually shift the transmission without using a clutch – they’ve become common on luxury/sport sedans, sports cars, exotics, etc.  The ones in the Taurus functionally work well.  You can up or down shift on either one by pulling or pushing the paddle, respectively.  However, having driven a Ferrari 360 Modena with paddle shifters, I never got used to the Taurus’ setup and still would prefer the right-side paddle to upshift, and the left to downshift.  Call me a snob (the Ferrari thing), but the paddles themselves felt cheesy and breakable.  I also question how many people will really use this feature on the SE, SEL and Limited models – I think it’d be better off as an SHO-only option.

Final Thoughts

I’m not the ideal target audience for this car  – I’m probably about 5-10 years of age and $25,000 of income from it. However, I walked away from this test thoroughly impressed with the 2010 Ford Taurus.  For about $32,000, you get a stylish, comfortable, technology-packed large sedan that won’t embarrass itself when driven hard.  For a daily driver and a road trip car, it’s fabulous.  At that price, I think it’s a tremendous value – I can’t think of a car in the segment with a better value proposition, though the Chrysler 300, Toyota Avalon and the new Buick LaCrosse are all worthy competitors. Once you start moving up the model range, the value lessens for me though – I’m not sure a lot of people will be willing to pay the $40,000+ cost for a loaded Limited or SHO model, even with the incredible amount of technology you get at that price (it makes my SEL look like a stripped-down model).  That’s BMW/Audi/Lexus territory and, as nice as it is, the Ford Taurus name doesn’t resonate in that stratosphere.  I have to wonder, also, what this does to Lincoln.  Why bother paying the premium price for a Lincoln MKZ or MKS model when you can get a car this good for a lower price.

I commend Ford for having the guts to take the Taurus upmarket like this though.  They’ve built a fantastic car – one that will change perceptions for the people that take a look at it.  And maybe that’s the point, even more than selling a car – maybe the Taurus can become a halo-type car for Ford, making people like my boss look at Ford when they otherwise wouldn’t.  When he buys his next car (currently driving a 2005 Dodge Durango), maybe he’ll look at a Flex or an Expedition.

The 2010 Taurus is a worthy successor to the game-changing one they built in 1986, the first Taurus since that first-generation one that truly is worthy.  If I were in the market for a family car, it’d be on my list for sure.  But for me, there’s still only one car I’m interested in (though I’m waiting until I can get the new 5.0 400 hp one):

2010 Mustang GT Convertible

2010 Mustang GT Convertible

Thanks again to Ford and Social Media Group (their social media agency) for this opportunity.  I had a blast with the 2010 Taurus and am proud that Ford, a company I’ve known & loved for a long time (and one I own stock in), built it.  I continue to be impressed with the change that’s taken place at that company, from the CEO’s office to product development and marketing – it’s truly been a revolution in Dearborn and I’m thrilled to see it.  This country needs Ford (and GM) to be successful, profitable companies going forward.

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