Ford will tout F-150 capability in College Football Playoff

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. is using the first-ever College Football Playoff to launch the advertising campaign for the redesigned F-150, but viewers won’t hear a word about how the truck’s lighter aluminum body helps improve fuel efficiency.

Instead, the initial series of three commercials aims to show that the switch from steel to lighter-weight aluminum makes the F-150 more durable and stronger. The fact that the F-150 is the most fuel-efficient full-size, gasoline-powered pickup available won’t be mentioned until a fourth ad begins running at a later date, Ford said.

Ford is starting the ad campaign for the redesigned F-150 earlier than it normally does for new vehicles, and the EPA ratings were released too recently to incorporate into the first ads. But the approach also indicates that Ford sees more potential to hook buyers with the truck’s capabilities -- and unique additions such as a remote tailgate release -- than with its fuel economy, which is improved but not as far ahead of competitors as some might have thought aluminum would take it.

Ford officials said that was the plan all along, and that the company has not changed its strategy with the F-150 as gasoline prices have plunged this month to their lowest level in more than five years.

“I believe it does not diminish at all the consumer’s desire for more fuel-efficient products,” Ford CEO Mark Fields told reporters this month.

Debut in Peach Bowl

The first commercial for the 2015 F-150 will run during Wednesday’s Peach Bowl. Commercials will run during other bowl games, including the two semifinal matchups on Thursday and the Jan. 12 national championship game.

Ford’s Lincoln brand also is using this week’s bowl games as the launching pad for another phase of its campaign with actor Matthew McConaughey, running two new spots for the MKZ sedan.

But Ford, a major National Football League sponsor, has elected not to advertise the F-150, its most important new vehicle in years, during the Feb. 1 Super Bowl. (Officials wouldn’t say whether the company is planning a Super Bowl ad for any vehicles besides the F-150.)

“From our point of view, there’s no bigger stage to debut the F-150 creative than the College Football Playoff,” said Keith Koeppen, Ford’s U.S. marketing communications manager. “It’s so closely aligned with the passions of our customer.”

Ford typically waits to start advertising campaigns when dealers have at least a 50-50 mix of the incoming and outgoing model but decided to go earlier to leverage the attention on the first year of the playoff, said Doug Scott, Ford’s truck group marketing manager. The new F-150 started shipping in mid-November, and Scott said most dealers won’t reach the 50-50 threshold until March or April.

‘Future of tough’

The first round of ads comprise a 60-second thematic spot called “Forward March” and two 30-second spots highlighting the truck’s towing capability and 11 class-exclusive features. Each promotes the F-150 as “the future of tough” and ends with an updated “Built Ford Tough” shield with lettering made from aluminum.

Like Ford’s current truck ads, they are voiced by comedian Denis Leary, but the messages have changed from cheeky to straightforward.

“We have such a substantive story here,” Scott said. “It just seemed like a good evolution to be a little less smart-alecky and more smart.”

Ford has several more F-150 commercials in the works, including one boasting that 2014 is the 33rd consecutive year in which the F series is America’s best-selling vehicle. Ford said it also plans to run commercials targeting Hispanic buyers, one of which will feature both Spanish and English and air on mainstream U.S. networks.

The F-150 campaign has a significant online presence as well. It created Internet videos with ESPN “Sport Science” creator John Brenkus to show off the materials and technologies in the truck. One demonstrates the durability of the aluminum bed by having athletes pelt it with a hockey puck, baseball, shot put and golf ball. The videos are a continuation of an effort that previously included YouTube clips of F-150s being put through various extreme and unusual tests by engineers and consumers.