Ford Hands Over the Keys to Fiesta Marketing

When I started working for the New York Mets in 1986, there was a nice clean line between the fans and the game:

1. The players played the game

2. The fans watched.

There were exceptions — I remember a particularly violent Upper-Deck encounter between a group of intoxicated corrections officers and everyone around them — but in general, the customers were expected to buy their tickets, watch, and go home.

By the mid-90’s, things had begun to change. Fans were demanding more opportunities to interact with the team, and we had responded with baby steps such as letting them run the bases after some games. Our VP of Operations, who had worked for the team since 1962, was not happy about it.

“All of a sudden, the fans think they’re part of the show,” he said. “They’re not the show. Why can’t they just watch and enjoy it?”

I was reminded of this, and how it has played out in marketing since then, when I read this article about Ford’s new campaign to market the Fiesta:

The company has picked 100 young, Web-savvy drivers to get behind the wheel of its new Ford Fiesta subcompact for six months and post their impressions on sites such as YouTube, Flickr and Twitter.

The marketing campaign starts later this month, almost a year before U.S. consumers will be able to buy the Fiesta. Since the Fiesta name has been absent from the U.S. market for years and Ford hasn’t been in the subcompact market for a long time, the company has to find a way of turning heads away from top-selling small cars like Toyota Motor Corp.’s Yaris and Honda Motor Co.’s Fit.

The most interesting part of this to me is that Ford has accepted, and perhaps embraced, the fact that although they’re paying for the whole thing,

[Ford] will have no control over the online material posted by the 100 participants. That means some could be bluntly critical of the car and Ford won’t be able to stop it.

The marketing world has changed from the days when it was the advertiser’s job to broadcast the commercial, and the consumer’s job to watch it. Like it or not, your customers are now part of the show.

Ford deserves congratulations for recognizing this — here’s hoping the Fiesta is good enough to justify their faith.

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Hot Promotion Idea for Media Salespeople

The next time some ad agency demands “added value” and won’t give you any direction as to what they want,  give ’em this.

I found it on Tara Bloom’s “Ditch the Dusty Widget” blog, and it’s perfect for Mother’s Day.

You can thank me later.

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Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

Final Elevator Pitch Contest Update — I Win!

The judges have spoken, and the winner of the 2009 Inside Sales Blog Elevator Pitch Contest is… Phil Bernstein. Thank you to all who voted.

Thanks to the folks at the Bridge Group for organizing the contest. I have no doubt that with all the blog/Facebook/LinkedIn/email campaigning going on, it was a nice traffic-driver for them.

Thanks and congratulations are also due to one of my competitors in the contest: Lon Orenstein of pinpointtools. Thanks for the gracious congratulatory email he sent me, and congratulations because he recognized a real side benefit of competing in an event like this — it gives you a great excuse to follow up with a sales call.

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Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

Economic Downturn = Recruiting Opportunity

Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.   — Warren Buffett

There’s no shortage of marketing advisors who will tell you that the best time to gain market share is during a downturn. Usually that advice is aimed at those who sell a product or service.

But a recent Wall Street Journal article indicates that some employment recruiters are seeing the same opportunity. In some cases, they are aggressively hiring even in cases where it might not make short-term sense on paper.

Among them is Steve Bonner, Chief Executive of Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Here’s his reaction to the applicant pool at their recent hospital opening in Phoenix:

… Bonner was so overwhelmed that he is considering hiring additional employees long before he needs them… ‘I’m asking myself: where are my weak spots, and is this an opportunity to plug one?’

Like Mr. Bonner, some employers are seizing the recession as an opportunity to strengthen their talent pool, poach stars from rivals or rebuild after layoffs. Every opening attracts dozens of qualified, and overqualified, applicants.

Another example from the article:

Consider Model N Inc., a closely held Silicon Valley software maker. Kamal Ahluwalia, vice president of corporate marketing, says Model N traditionally faced tough competition for employees from software giants such as Oracle Corp. and SAP AG, as well as smaller startups.

“Now, all the big guys are on hiring freeze, and most of the startups are dying,” he says. “In this downturn, we really do have an opportunity to hire the best talent.”

Since this is my blog, I’ll mention here that I’ve got a rooting interest in this process.

My company, Clear Channel  Portland, will be putting on a Career and Education Fair on Wednesday, May 20 at Clackamas Town Center. We’ve already got exhibitors from the Portland, Vancouver and Salem areas signed up to fill jobs in the fields of medical & health care, financial services, law enforcement, and armed forces. And there’s plenty of room for more.

We’ll be promoting the event on seven English-language radio stations and four Spanish-language stations, so this will attract a large and diverse applicant pool.

Interested in being an exhibitor? Call me at 503-323-6553, or email me here.

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Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

Green Is the New Clutter

My colleague Jennifer Schurter has an interesting post on “greenwashing” — the practice of making dubious environmental claims in a marketing campaign.

I found it especially timely, having recently encountered:

1. Three different dry cleaners claiming to be “environmentally friendly”.  One has made that claim for years; the other two recently added signage to that effect.

2. A Portland pest-control company advertising its “concern for the environment” — an interesting position to stake out when its primary business is to kill living things.

3. A Portland radio station (not one of mine) honoring  Comcast Cable as part of its “Green Team”. Apparently this is because if you stay home and watch movies on demand, you’re not driving to the theater or rental store.

4. Thursday’s Wall Street Journal article on the difficulty of verifying environmental claims.

All of these claims may very well have some truth to them — although the cable one made me hoot in my hybrid.  And the reason for the approach is that environmental impact and energy use are definitely on consumers’ minds.

But the proliferation of “green” messaging will ultimately cause consumers to tune much of it out.

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Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.