There has been much talk about the “Ford Fiesta Movement”, a classic example of how a big brand utilized social media innovatively with zero budget, and with a huge ROI (even if the investment was merely time and effort.) The Ford Fiesta is a European car that will be sold in the U.S by Ford in 2010.
So what did the social media campaign exactly entail? 100 Social Media enthusiasts were given a Ford Fiesta to use and drive for 6 months. The only condition was that they spread the word about their experience in social media – utilizing tactics such as tweeting, taking multimedia such as photos and videos and other social media activities. The Ford Fiesta team puts together all the digital feedback on www.Fiestamovement.com as it is, no revisions or edits. Scott Monty, head of social media for Ford said, “Ultimately what we’ve got is 50,000 hand-raisers who have seen the Fiesta online or in person who’ve said they want to know more about it when it comes out.” Think of it as Costco food samples on steroids. They gave out samples of their product for a select group to try (it’s no accident that these people are heavy social media users), and for the free use of a great car, they only have to talk about their experience through amplified word-of-mouth – otherwise called social media. It is the genius collaboration of word-of-mouth, buzz marketing and social media. It is the 2010 version of the focus group discussion.
And what is execution without a good culmination? At the end of the first stage of the social media campaign, Ford organized the World’s Largest Tweetup by bringing together friends and family of the selected test drivers. It’s literally in the books – Guinness book of records has acknowledged it as the World’s Largest Tweetup.
The Ford Fiesta campaign social media case study shows that social media, combined with a good idea and great execution, equals a successful marketing effort. In Ford’s case they decided not just on one platform – but they decided on the full gamut of options that social media offered. They also focused their efforts on respondents that would be great influencers, like planting seed in good soil.
What does this mean for small businesses?
There are unlimited amounts of ways the any entrepreneur can creatively use a test drive of their company’s products or services. At Practical Social Media, we recently delivered a full, social media, “Getting In The Game” guide to all our readers to test drive before making it available to the public. This not only creates good will and great feedback, but we also asked for reviews on Yelp, which make it into the search engine rankings.
There is no time better than now to be creative about how you use social media to market your business.
