From Viral to Vital - Social Media Marketing Comes of Age

A funny thing happened last year. A few car companies went bankrupt. You might have heard about it.

But what you probably didn’t hear, was that Ford Motor Company didn’t. Go bankrupt I mean. They did just fine. In fact, Ford is going through, what can only be called, a modern day automotive renaissance lately.

In fact, Ford stocks have recovered all of their losses that they took leading up to 2008.

Now, there are as many reasons as to why this has happened as there are people to ask. I know what I think:

Ford, unlike most other American automakers, woke up and smelled the coffee a few years ago in a big way. Someone, looked out their office window and saw the vista of North America looking back and them and said: “You know what? All our clients are dying.”

For years, the North American auto industry has focused on middle aged white males. The problem is that, eventually, that demographic will buy its last car and drive its last mile. And for years, automakers have –for the most part- buried their heads in the sand about this problem.

They ignored the rise of female drivers, the new youth buying power, and the increased demand of more fuel efficient cars.

By doing so, they handed over the North American market place to the Japanese and Europeans.

But Ford has taken great strides to reverse this trend and to learn from past mistakes.

Part of their new strategy is tapping into the HUGE next generation of buyers. Within the next few years millions of youth will turn the legal age to drive and many more will be getting their first post graduate jobs.

That’s a big market to tap into. And unlike other car companies, Ford is going straight to them to establish their brand.

Part of their new marketing push is teaming up with online content pioneers such as YouTube, and their 20 something channel partners in what they are calling the Ford Fiesta Project.

And now, these young –in many cases accidental- social media celebrities are the new faces of Ford’s online advertising for their Ford Fiesta, and part of a bold experiment for Ford to grow its brand where the kids are: online.

YouTube’s audience is the exact market Ford wants to tap into: hip enough to experience brands online, and young enough to tap into before they make their first major automotive purchase. It’s the perfect chance for Ford to get customers for life.

Ford recently gave a select group of YouTube stars a Fiesta for six months to drive around for free. All they had to do was do one YouTube video a month for them to leverage their online celebrity with their budding consumer audience.

For a company that for a generation has been fanatical about controlling its brand, this is a huge risk. But it’s a risk that has great rewards if it pays off.

Ford’s bold new direction has lead it to become one of the greenest car companies around, and now this direction might cement it as the brand of choice for a new generation of car drivers.

Ford sees the writing on the wall. Do you?

See their videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/fordfiesta

I’ve selected my favorite one to showcase: