Ford Seeks to Reinvent Test Drives With New Campaign

DEARBORN, MI – Ford is betting its new marketing campaign will help it evolve test drives past the “get-butts-in-seats” methods used in the past, says a top marketer.

Dubbed “Start More Than A Car. Get More Than A Test Drive,” the campaign combines elements of video games and laser tag along a driving course meant to play up the ride and handling attributes and technology features of the ’12 Ford Focus.

New Ford campaign aims to get 50,000 consumers behind wheel of Focus.

When the driver precisely maneuvers the car over sensors along the course, the sound of a guitar chord or cheering audience indicates success, while onboard recording equipment captures the driver’s reaction and tallies points.

A short video clip of the driver’s face as he navigates the course is sent via email so it can be shared among peers or posted on social media sites such as Facebook.

Lew Echlin, Ford global-car marketing manager, says traditional consumer test drives are costly and often do little to win over potential buyers.

“Ride-and-drives have become totally commoditized,” he tells Ward’s at a demonstration of the test-drive program here. “They take a remarkable amount of investment, so we’re trying to make sure that investment counts by making it uniquely memorable in terms of the experience and sharable afterwards.”

Data gleaned through pilot programs indicate the campaign is effective. According to Echlin, 86% of participants shared their test-drive videos online an average of 18 times.

Although expensive, consumer test drives have become “increasingly more relevant,” he says. “We live in an experienced economy, and experiences are still the best way to build affinity for a brand.”

The campaign launches Aug. 22 and will visit 22 U.S. cities. Rather than just set up shop in a parking lot and “hope that one out of every 10 people that happens to walk by takes a drive,” Echlin says events will be staged on college and corporate campuses, as well as the parking lots of big-box retailers.

Dates and times will be announced weeks before the events, and time slots will be assigned so lines are kept short for the roughly 1-minute drives.

The campaign also presents an opportunity to capture conquest buyers. Ford’s U.S. market share has hovered at about 15% most of the year, leaving 85% of consumers who do not own Ford products, he says.

Ford’s goal this year is to get 100,000 potential customers to test-drive a new Focus, with the current campaign accounting for about half that number.

Many more consumers could be reached as test-drive participants share their videos online, officials say.

“This is about making the biggest impact we can,” Echlin says, noting the test-drive videos make the experience “more lasting” and allow others to “live vicariously” through the drive participant.

If the campaign succeeds, a similar approach may be used for other vehicle launches.

“We’re hoping this does for ride-and-drives what Fiesta Movement did for social media,” he says, referring to Ford’s successful social-media marketing campaign for its Fiesta B-car.

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