Ford Canada wants consumers to give its redesigned family of vehicles a try.
That’s the idea behind the company’s new brand campaign, “Try More,” which kicked off in earnest last month with a OOH takeover in Toronto’s Dundas Square. The new campaign encourages consumers to try new things, from axe throwing to creating art, playing live music and, of course, test driving a Ford.
The campaign is anchored by a 30-second spot that premiered on broadcast June 8. Created by Ford’s agency of record, Blue Hive Group, the spot pairs vanity shots of its 2015 line of vehicles with a montage of characters trying new activities.
Peter Jansen, director of marketing at Ford of Canada, said the campaign is a chance to reintroduce the brand to consumers following the recent redesign of its core models. In the past, Ford vehicles have differed greatly from model to model. The redesign introduced more common elements between the models — a move Ford felt was worthy of a big, over-arching brand campaign.
“With the whole family look of all the vehicles, it really made sense for us. When you put them all together, they look like they’re all from the same family,” he said. “Five years ago, the Mustang looked completely different from the Focus, which looked completely different than the Fusion.”
Three of the models – the Focus, Fiesta and Fusion – also have the same business problem: each is a challenger brand in its category. Just one Ford model, the Mustang, is leading its category (sports cars). Because of this, the company decided to present the line as a group in hopes some of the cache value of its Mustang “power brand,” would rub off.
“They’re great cars, all redesigned, but not a lot of people know they’ve gone through a redesign or what they offer. This gave us an opportunity to tell that story all together.”
According to Jansen, the campaign will run with a “very sizable” media buy this summer and continue through at least the end of the year in some capacity. The intent, he said, is to continue with the “Try More” positioning long term.
Ford’s also bringing the campaign to life with a series of live events that offer consumers the chance to “Try More” in person. Throughout July, the company will hold events with help from its experiential agency, Bond, in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver where consumers can do the activities from the commercial, like axe throwing, as well as mechanical bull riding and learning mixed martial arts.
The brand will also have cars on site for consumers to check out and has a series of activities planned that incorporate the vehicles, like in-car lip syncing.
The three events lead up to a summer wrap-up event that will be held in Montreal in mid-August. Each will have a social media component and Ford will be collecting user-generated content at each event to share on its social channels.
Online, the campaign is supported by pre-roll, paid social media and digital display. There are also OOH buys in Vancouver and Montreal. Mindshare handled the media buy.
