Ford Targets 100 Socially-Networked Millennials for First Drive of Ford's New Small Car, the Fiesta

Ford is rebranding the driving experience during their upcoming social media campaign called the “Fiesta Movement.” The movement is strategically designed to spread the word and generate buzz about the Fiesta’s upcoming 2010 North American launch.

Aside from being voted “Car of the Year 2009” by What Car? Magazine, in the European auto market the Fiesta has strong customer loyalty and brand recognition for its performance, design and value.

The Fiesta Movement focuses on the emerging market force and highly influential Millennial group; those born between 1979 and 1995. With over 11,000 Millennials reaching driving age every day, they have been identified as one of the most significant consumer groups since the Baby Boomers.

Selected from over 1,500 applications, 100 Millennials have been chosen by Ford to act as special “agents” tasked to complete their individual Ford Fiesta missions. Throughout the missions they’re to use technology to capture and share their experiences digitally by connecting with their social networks through Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.

Overall, the agents’ final mission and main goal of the Fiesta Movement is to produce socially authentic and genuine driving experiences through the use of social media.

Quotes:

“For Millennials, social media is just a part of life. In fact, statistics show that for those born after 1980, 62 percent of the content they consume comes from someone they know personally. The missions will take them to new places, to meet new people and to experience new things in their Fiesta.”

“Social networks are becoming an increasingly important way to talk to consumers, especially for the Millennial generation. According to statistics from a Universal McCann Comparative Study on social media trends, 45 percent of online users have started a blog, 57 percent have joined a social network and 55 percent have uploaded photos.”

“Since it was introduced last August, sales of the new Fiesta have totaled more than 89,000 units across the main European markets. That success continued into 2009, with January sales of more than 28,000 vehicles.”

“The Fiestas engaged in the Movement campaign are European-specification vehicles, updated for use in the U.S. The language in the message center was changed from German to English and the speedometer was changed from kilometers to miles per hour, but the voice for the Bluetooth functionality has a British accent!”

Links:

News Release: FORD TARGETS 100 SOCIALLY-NETWORKED MILLENNIALS FOR FIRST DRIVE OF FORD’S NEW SMALL CAR, FIESTA