Malaysian Media Awards Winners Showcase





2014 | |

Thank Ford it’s Friday made a 2 year old car cool again

Advertiser: Sime Darby Auto Connexion
Brand: Ford
Creative Agency: Astro
Credits: Mindshare — Joe Ng (Senior Executive), Bryan Chiang (Manager), Elaine Lee (Manager), Stephanie Looi (Senior Manager, Client Leadership),Koh Yee Ling (Director, Client Leadership), Kristine Ong (Partner, Client Leadership); Astro Radio — Mark Anderson; Sime Darby Auto Connexion — Hazel Khor

The Challenge
Q3 2013 marks the entry of the new Ford Fiesta but prior to that agency was challenged to clear off 480 units of the 2-year old Fiesta model within in 5 months period prior to the new Fiesta launch. But how does one sell an old model to a Millennial?

The Solution – Insight & Idea
The 18-to-34-year old Millennial are fixated with owning a car at a young age. It is a reflection of their image and status. They are thrill seekers and average conventional experience does not appeal to them. Most often than not, they are immune to the bombardment of various ad messages, relying instead on peers recommendation and people they look up to or follow. They want to be seen with the hip and happening in- crowd. Experience also tells us that 80% of consumers are more likely to follow a brand that provides brand experience and engagement activities. Clearly, we needed a surprise and delight strategy. Conventional press advertising will not work and no one wants to be associated with an old model when they can easily buy a new model and they are spoilt with choices. We have to make a 2 year old model cool again. The strategy was for the old Ford Fiesta to make appearance via the most happening in crowd delivered via Thank Ford its Friday, a series of mini concerts in the city Thank Ford its Friday was created.

The Execution
For 6 consecutive weeks every Friday, Ford brings the best out of your Friday with energetic and entertaining live performances. In partnership with HitzFM, Thank Ford its Friday presented a series of mini concert complete with DJ live spinning in major happening locations ie Sunway Pyramid, Publika, Paradigm Mall and Lot 10 where our target prospects congregates. At each of the event, we invited Fiesta official car club to place their modified vehicles at the event location and shared their driving experience. We featured Fiesta technology and innovation and target prospects would be able to see the Fiesta car in action. We secured test drive leads on ground. The old Fiesta was seen in the company of the coolest concert amongst the cool artiste and DJs.

The Results
The 2 year old Fiesta was cool again. The 480 units were cleared off in 2 months! Ford garnered an additional 6634 Facebook likes in 6 weeks and many event photos were shared through #TFIF. Over 380 test drive submission was gained at event, a 3-fold gain compared to walk-ins.