A 24/7, rapid-response reveal of an SUV. (With celebrities to boot.)
Ford was completely reinventing the SUV to be greener and smarter, with a stunning suite of technology, excellent fuel economy and a sleek, “ripped” physique. So we needed to reinvent the SUV launch.
Our first step? Dial up the social media. We built a program with richer, more complex, more intense uses of social media than had ever been used in a launch.
It all began six months prior to the launch, when we started our Explorer Facebook fan page: a go-to, insider-info hub called “Explorer Live.” People could ask Explorer questions and get lightning-fast Explorer answers, straight from the experts at Ford. The page gave people a place to compliment. Criticize. React.
Explorer Live gave us a 24/7 line of communication, allowing us to build excitement around the first public reveal of Explorer. It was the first live-on-Facebook introduction of an SUV.
Once we revealed the sheet metal, we knew the questions would ramp up. So Explorer Live got amped with a Rapid-Response “answer man” brought in to continue the conversation. Imagine: a giant automaker answering individual fans’ questions with text, photos even videos, sometimes within 48 hours of the question being asked.
To generate even more buzz, we enlisted TV stars, musicians, and other celebrities to help us answer the barrage of questions. This drove almost a million people to watch the Explorer live content online, and each time they watched, they learned something new.