As the demands of integrated marketing campaigns continue to force the creative community to slowly evolve from the :30 TV unit to new experiences built for non-linear and on-demand platforms, the question among marketers is, "what does good look like in this new cross platform world?".
Is it really Cannes Titanium UPC codes… inventive as they are? Is it Target's in-house creative stewardship of dozens of agencies? Is it getting your campaign up on YouTube?
These are all questions that marketers and agencies are now pondering as the old standby, lean back :30 TV unit isn't a successful one-size-fits-all-medium for communicating with the newly-empowered mobile consumer.
In recent months, no one has done the integrated approach thing quite as well in my estimation, and as comprehensively, as Ford and their agency JWT with the new Bold Moves campaign. The elements of this campaign are both wide and deep in their efforts to tell the story of change and re-invigoration at Ford Motor.
Start with the traditional mix: there's beautifully shot and art directed TV and print that nicely wraps the otherwise mundanely designed vehicles in a very stylish and contemporarily art directed package.
Unfortunately, once you move past the hot Mustang re-issue and retro T-Bird, there just ain't enough design pizzazz in the other models to stretch as wide as the campaign does.
This spells trouble for Ford at the product level, where they've been coasting on the popularity of the gas guzzling Explorer SUV for far too long.
But it's in the online world that this campaign really demonstrates its digital smarts. Start with the website: www.fordboldmoves.com. Here you'll find a multitude of documentary content and wonderful webisodes that are beautifully shot. More importantly, the site honestly admits, via ford employees, that there is much work to be done to improve the culture, cars and customer experience at Ford.
One can't help but wonder if this is actually a desire to demonstrate real consumer transparency, or double as an employee morale builder given the bevy of bad news surrounding Ford sales and cost/employee-cutting operations of late.
The cool part is that there's both video and RSS feeds that allow the user to grab the content on the go as well as a blog that invites consumers and employees to contribute to the dialogue en masse.
From a media standpoint, there are even bold moves like placing all the webisodes in Google's Video library, where one gets a greater visual sense of the depth and variety of documentary story-telling that's available if you're really in the market and considering a Ford vehicle.
But here's the harsh news.
No amount of stylish advertising and engaging online experiences, even while wonderfully integrated, can sell people a product they don't want. Which is why -- despite JWT having done a wonderful job architecting and delivering such an integrated campaign -- the proof must be in the product. And frankly, it's not.
Ford and JWT get an "A" for transparency, online marketing effort and emerging media deployments -- but unfortunately, Ford has more of a product problem than an advertising one.
Today's products that carry the most cultural currency (like iPod, Nike, Mini, et cetera) start with an objective to thrill the consumer-- in their design, the simplicity of their functionality and their ability to be personalized.
Like others in Detroit, Ford needs to recognize that designing products for an audience of one rather than a marketplace of many holds the key to thrilling the consumer.
Once upon a time when Ford introduced the Taurus, whose rear-end design vaguely resembled that of a Mercedes sedan, there were a select few who saw the appeal in a vehicle that allowed them to aspire up at a price they could afford. Word of mouth and street appeal took it from there. This wasn't a vehicle designed for the many; it appealed to the sensibility of the few.
For Ford to do justice to the wonderful effort of the Bold Moves campaign, it must boldly look inward. In the meantime, kudos to JWT for the integrated effort. To this creative director, the Bold Moves campaign is what good looks like.
Alan Schulman is Chief Creative Officer for Brand New World. Read full bio.
