Category: Best integrated content campaign
Advertiser: FORD SPAIN
Product/Service: NEW FORD FOCUS
Agency: OGILVY SPAIN
Digital Development/Innovation Director: Santiago Sánchez-Lozano (Bassat Ogilvy)
Project Manager: Jose Escobar (Bassat Ogilvy)
Account Director: Luis Muñiz (Bassat Ogilvy)
Creative Copywritter: David Guimaraes (Bassat Ogilvy)
Digital Producer: Javier Merlo (Bassat Ogilvy)
Media placement: Website - Online - 07/March/2011
Media placement: Online & Offline News / PR - Online - 07/March/2011
Media placement: Content - Online - 01/Apr/2011
Media placement: TV Program - TV - 26/May/2011
Campaign Description
The regulations governing Branded Entertainment in Spain are limited to the fact that it is advertising, and this must be stated. However, many of the elements used in the competition were so seamlessly integrated as programme content that this indication was deemed not necessary.
From a practical point of view, the challenge lies in how to generate brand value-based content which the different media will wish to own. To this end, we have to create the content thinking the way a TV scriptwriter or a newspaper journalist thinks.
By creating content which any of them might have wished he had created, the integration of the content in the media turned out to be completely natural for users, and we also had the collusion of the editorial teams on the different media.
Effectiveness
We had the objective to contribute localy to the worldwide launch of the new Ford Focus before the the product launch campaign began.
Every year for the last 18 years, Ford has been official sponsor of the UEFA Champions League. And if there is one Ford which has always been identified with the world of football, it is the Ford Focus.
To celebrate the worldwide launch of the new Ford Focus we decided that the person who really deserved to have the first car to drive on Spanish roads was the person who proved to know the most about football.
For the action to be successful, it was key for the content, the media we were to use and the New Ford Focus to be thoroughly integrated.
With this in mind, we struck a deal with Marca, the largest circulation sports paper in Spain, an we ran an online competition for 8 weeks, asking more than 12m questions about football to the participants.
We also had an agreement with Tele5, the TV channel which broadcast all the matches that swept the Spanish side to World Cup victory.
The contest finale which aired on Tele 5 led the audience ratings throughout the broadcast and we saw live how the new Ford Focus was handed over to the person who knows most about football.
Implementation
We struck a deal with Marca, the largest circulation sports paper in Spain, and with Tele5, the TV channel which broadcast all the matches that swept the Spanish side to World Cup victory.
With both media, we reached an agreement that allowed us to generate content so thoroughly integrated that it was impossible to tell where the advertising ended and the entertainment began.
This integration was so seamless that 4 out of 10 people who visited the home page of our contest registered, and each of the 140,000 contestants we had spent an average 47 minutes in our application.
Outcome
1. We increased favourable opinion of the new Ford Focus by 8%, doubling the objective set and turning a negative trend around.
2. 138,456 fans registered to take part in the Football Focus Challenge 2011, a full 38% higher than the objective set. Each of the contestants spent, on average, more than 47 minutes competing.
3. The videos produced for this action were viewed a total of 1,648,230 times, 229% more than we had been asked.
4. In addition, 28,086 contestants used Facebook to challenge their friends or to publish the results they obtained on Football Focus Challenge. This gave rise to more than 54,938 actions in Facebook (wall posts, etc.) receiving over 750,000 feedback messages from their followers, giving the whole action a very broad social dimension.
5. The final of the contest achieved an average share of 17.1%, making it the most viewed programme in its prime time slot with a peak audience of 2.4m viewers.
6. We increased the average showroom traffic enquiring about the new Ford Focus by 87% prior to the campaign launch in conventional media, 25% more than the objectives set.