Ford’s New ‘Swap Your Ride’ Ad Campaign Sets Retail Benchmark
Ford brings back its effective Swap Your Ride ad campaign.
For almost as long as auto manufacturers have sold to and through local dealers there have been significant differences of opinion – also known as shouting arguments — as to what makes a good dealer or dealer group ad, especially in television, the primary ad medium. And it escalates in intensity prior to the vital spring sales selling period.
Dealers usually want big prices, special deals, their name really big, on-camera appearances, lots of gags, gimmicks and goofy set-ups featuring clowns, dogs, loud suits, whining salespeople and of course shopping hours, convenient terms, special financing and so on. The usual statement to factory and agency reps is, “We know our market a helluva lot better than you fancy-pants do in (insert city name)!
The factory suits, most who have never sold a car on a showroom floor — combined with sartorially challenged agency “creative” and producers who (a) usually detest doing anything retail and (b) if they’re made to, want pretty brand-building commercials which include sunrise or sunset beauty shots, running footage in scenic areas, especially California, celebrity actors and/or voiceovers, mind numbing computer generated images, special music, shooting in film not tape and absolutely no mention of the dealers who sell the vehicle. Result? Good looking, non-selling commercials that look really good on personal reels. But retail sales results are dubious.
Ford skipped several years with the Swap Your Ride campaign due to its financial problems.
The compromise is the ad agency involved shortens national commercials which enable/allow a dealer or dealer group to tag the spot with local information. Commercials of this ilk are never – maybe seldom ever — seen on anyone’s reel for very good reason. See previous paragraph.
The annual creative challenge is to create involvement and identification to build traffic, have compelling pricing, specify brand differentiation and do it all in ;30-seconds. Sure!
Ford Changed the Local-Retail Ad Paradigm
In 2007 Ford debuted the first version of Swap Your Ride when consumers were given a Ford product competitive with their present vehicle to drive for a week then talked on-camera about their experience and compared rides. Voiceover narration was delivered by Mike Rowe, best known for his hosting a shopping TV program and hosting the popular cable Dirty Jobs show.
According to Matt Van Dyke, Ford’s director of U.S. marketing communications, “The campaign was popular with Ford dealers and scored ‘well’ in consumer research.” Lois Miller, president of Nielsen Automotive stated their research showed, “Ford’s Swap Your Ride campaign is 48% more effective than ads of average sales events and have historically recalled the brand and key message at high rates.” The SYR program was, however. not run in either 2008 or 2009 due to the economic meltdown. A version of the theme campaign was run last year with good results. Ads from last year’s campaign are among the finalists of the annual Nielsen Automotive Advertising Effectiveness Awards, which will be honored at the New York Auto Show in a couple of weeks.
The 2011 Swap Your Ride Program
Planning for the new program began with a sharp marketing focus: Retail advertising (Tier 2 in Ford nomenclature) is equally important as brand advertising (Tier 1), creative executions will be based on research findings from Nielsen Co.’s Global Automotive Division and will provide synergy for driving retail traffic. This is an ambitious, aggressive creative positioning statement, but not impossible.
The newest version of Swap Your Ride came about when the Team Detroit, Ford’s primary advertising agency, proposed a newer, more contemporary version of the SYR program which had previously focused on four messages: quality, green, safety and smart technology. The new campaign would only focus on green and smart tech and Mike Rowe, a likeable, believable (4th ranking in Forbes celebrity ad spokespersons list) spokesperson would have a more active role with on-camera presence.
The agency’s creative team led by said Mike Priebe, senior vice president with JWT Y&R Retail First, which is part of Team Detroit, said they began work and then showed it to Ford retailers and the dealer council to get their views on the new campaign. Following approval production plans were put together including hiring an Academy Award winning documentary film maker, Jessica Yu, who would play an important part in the unscripted commercials. “Doc-film-makers,” Priebe commented, “Know how to interact with real people who are not actors.
From a cattle call of 200 people the list was culled to 32 who were given a Ford vehicle – either a Fiesta, Fusion, Escape, F150, Explorer or Fusion Hybrid – to drive for a week. Then Rowe interviewed each individually on-camera for cameo-statements and then hosted a discussion of all participants. The filming took place in California, “A land of brand opportunity,” said Van Dyke, over a two week period. The amount of hi-def video tape generated by a shot this long and complex, I know from experience, is staggering.
Then the complex job began of compiling, transcribing, early edits and final editing which resulted in 16 different commercials. Click Here are a few examples.
Note the deft cutting and editing with quick interplay between Rowe and the interviewee along with driving footage, it’s an excellent marriage of strategy, content and production values. Kudos to all involved.
The Swap Your Ride campaign started Wednesday and will run for the next several weeks on the usual suspect shows on both broadcast and cable television along with print ads.
Another Aussie Commercial Gem
Audi's "Actual Size" ad.
What is it about the Australians? Okay, the accent helps. But that’s not the only reason their ads so often connect when you see them.
aSaw this commercial, it’s an Aussie evergreen I was told by the producer, while in the land down under. Intro by those droll chaps at Top Gear. Click Here.
Quality Newspaper Ads Are Not Dead
Even though newspaper advertising is in a precipitous decline into a deep dark abyss there are a few stalwarts who feel print, properly used can grab attention. Audi is a proponent of this philosophy and has asked their ad agency, Venable, Bell and Partners to develop a series of print ads. Here’s one of the first which ran in the Sunday edition of the New York Times. The ads name is ‘actual’ size.