Ford Edge
Background
In fall 2006, Ford launched its new crossover vehicle, the Ford Edge. To drum up interest in the vehicle and increase brand affinity for Ford, the company decided to launch a mobile advertising program that would include banner advertisements and cross media promotions of a Ford Edge mobile Internet (WAP) site. Ford hoped this initiative would build brand and product awareness and increase audience reach through a new and largely uncluttered advertising medium.
Objectives
- Build a mobile presence to engage with consumers hard to reach through other channels
- Promote the Ford Edge to men in the 28-to-34 age bracket
- Drive traffic to WAP site with mobile banner ads and short code campaigns printed on other media
Solution
Ford wanted to promote its new crossover vehicle to a certain subset of the population – 28- to 34-year-old men. However, with the saturation of vehicle advertising on traditional media, the company wanted to reach prospective buyers in an uncluttered medium. The end-to-end program, powered by the Enpocket platform, includes a multimedia mobile web site where consumers can learn about the Ford Edge, sign up for text alerts, download a variety of Ford Edge wallpapers, and click to play the Ford Edge video. Enpocket is also running the promotional SMS campaigns to drive traffic to the Ford site. The mobile site is currently being promoted in newspapers with a ‘short code’ text mechanic where consumers can text in for the link to the Ford site and with ad banners on the mobile Web.
The Ford mobile site can be viewed by entering the URL (http://ford.enpocket.com) into a mobile browser.
Results
- Consisten CTR of over 2 percent on Enpocket Network
- Mobile marketing is expanding globally and to other Ford models in 2007
Ford executives were surprised to hear that more people viewed the Edge video on mobile than did on the Internet. As a result of the success of the program, the company plans to expand it globally and include other Ford models.
