Brands are littering Facebook, Twitter and YouTube with run-of-the-mill social media campaigns. Many are guilty of replicating the ideas of their more ambitious competitors while others simply hope to get additional mileage out of television spots by placing them on YouTube. Not Ford.
On the heels of its successful and well-received Ford Fiesta Movement and 2011 Explorer Facebook reveal initiatives, Ford has crafted yet another innovative social media campaign, this time to raise awareness and introduce consumers to the 2012 Focus.
At the center of the campaign is Doug, an irreverent and absurd tweeting, Facebook updating and YouTube uploading sock puppet serving as the spokesperson for the new car.
Ford has constructed multifaceted fictional characters in Doug and John. John is Doug’s human companion — the straight man of duo. Doug’s comedic, brazen and off-the-cuff personality is the perfect foil for John’s more factually-grounded act. Together, they flit about the country in a new Focus, frequently updating their social media accounts with an assortment of content and playful banter.
The idea, says Digital Marketing Manager Scott Kelly, whose team is responsible for the campaign, is to use social channels as a medium to create invitational content.
“Doug is a multilayered character that’s more fun to get to know in an interactive setting. A 30-second TV spot could never afford us the opportunity to engage with our consumers the way the social channels do,” says Kelly. “The videos are an introduction to him and John, but the real fun begins when people can talk to Doug and have him talk back.”
Untraditional and the opposite of politically correct, this social media and content-heavy campaign is the riskiest one yet for Ford.
Ford, widely regarded as a digitally savvy brand, is not guaranteed a home run with each swing. And with fictional characters engaging with brand fans, an outspoken socket puppet with a big mouth, and an agency that manages the social media updates, Ford is asking for trouble. Anything and everything could go wrong.
Mashable spoke with Kelly extensively to get a behind-the-scenes look at the campaign and a progress report on how its going.
In understanding Ford’s motives for the spokespuppet campaign, one must first understand who Doug is and what he represents.
“Doug is the latest addition to a long history of spokespeople for Ford,” Kelly says. “Like the 100 agents from the Fiesta Movement, he’s someone who’s been loaned a Focus for a certain period of time and expected to get the word out about what is, essentially, a brand-new car.”
Doug is symbolic of the redesigned Focus — he’s the opposite of what you’d expect. “The 2012 Focus is nothing like the past Focus, and Doug is supposed to serve as a provocateur who gets people to take a left turn in their day,” says Kelly.
The company intentionally made Doug a sock puppet so he could say and do things that might not be acceptable from a human spokesperson. Doug is Ford’s license to walk on the wild side.
Add to that John, “the straight man to Doug’s occasional absurdity,” as Kelly describes him, and you have a comedic pair in balance.
“[John] is the one with the real knowledge of the vehicle, so he can correct misinformation when Doug says something like, ‘Every new Focus comes with an ejector seat and a license plate changer,’” says Kelly. “Basically, he acts as a liaison of decency between Doug and the public, as well as letting us interject some vehicle features in a natural way.”
The Playbook & Cast of Character
The ongoing campaign, launched in March and set to run through fall and possibly until the end of 2011, is quite intricate.
Here’s a rundown of who’s involved:
- Paul Feig: Paul Feig is the creator of Freaks and Geeks and an occasional director of The Office. For the Ford campaign, Feig directs the video spots that appear on YouTube.
- Rob Cohen: A writer for The Simpsons, Cohen is also the lead writer for the Ford campaign. He helps script the YouTube clips and craft the characters of Doug and John.
- John Ross Bowie: Actor and comedian John Ross Bowie plays John, the Ford Guy. Bowie is best known for playing Barry Kripke in The Big Bang Theory.
- Paul F. Tompkins: Stand-up comic and actor Paul F. Tompkins appeared in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. He plays Doug, and often improvises and ad-libs Doug’s lines.
- Ridley Scott & Associates: The production house being used for the campaign.
- WPP Team Detroit: Ford’s creative agency of record for the campaign. Two individuals at the agency are authorized to speak for Doug on Facebook and Twitter. They’ve been trained on Doug’s personality and are tasked to always stay in character.
The show is an always-on production. Doug uploads videos to YouTube once or twice weekly. The videos spawn a slew of responses from viewers, and responses are weaved into the plot as both Doug and John engage with fans. With the campaign so heavily tied to social media, Ford rarely lets Doug rest.
“[Doug's] Facebook and Twitter channels are buzzing on an hourly basis — even on the weekends,” says Kelly. “We try not to leave fans hanging for too long without some sort of response.”
Producing campaigns for social media is perceived to be a cheaper affair, but as you can surmise Ford’s not pinching pennies on this one.
“This is roughly what we would spend on a TV campaign that would produce 3 to 5 commercials,” says Kelly. “Yet we’re producing a lot more content and having a more engaged conversation — more bang for the buck.”
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