LOS ANGELES -- Ford Motor Co. is again calling on Web-savvy millennials to help launch its Ford Fiesta subcompact.
The automaker said today it is reviving the Fiesta Movement campaign used four years ago to help launch the Fiesta in the U.S. market. Unlike the first Fiesta Movement campaign, videos, photos and stories created by those millennials will be the basis for all advertising creative of the freshened Fiesta's launch campaign.
Ford says this will be its first completely user-generated campaign. The yearlong campaign is also Ford's most ambitious use of crowd-sourced advertising ideas, following the first Fiesta Movement campaign and its "Steer the Script" crowd-sourced Super Bowl commercial for Lincoln.
Like Ford did with the first Fiesta Movement campaign, it will recruit 100 so-called social influencers and give them a new Fiesta for a year to create digital content about the vehicle, including Tweets, blogs, photos and videos to be shared via social media, Ford said. Bloggers were used in the first Fiesta Movement campaign to build buzz prior to the car's traditional marketing launch.
This time, Ford will distribute content created by bloggers through traditional mass-media channels, including TV commercials. For example, a video created by a Fiesta-driving blogger could be turned into a 30-second TV spot by Ford's ad agency, Team Detroit.
"We'll think of their role less as the creative team and more of the curating and editing team that's putting all of this together," Ford spokesman Scott Monty said of the role played by the creative department of Ford's ad agency.
Ford will also incorporate high-profile TV, sports and entertainment events, including "American Idol," the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival and the X Games, in the campaign to help generate extra exposure. Ford will place influencers at the events to create content.
"Fiesta was designed to reflect the individuality of the customer, so we feel the marketing efforts should give the reins to the people who will be driving it," Jim Farley, Ford's global marketing boss, said in a statement.
The first elements of the campaign will likely be seen starting in May and continue through year end, Monty said. Monty declined to discuss financial details of the campaign.
The New York Times reported the campaign Tuesday on its Media Decoder blog.
