Ford Fiesta Movement & 100 Agents of Change.

Have you heard about the Ford Fiesta Movement? It may sound like a grass roots Buy American campaign, but it’s really a pretty ingenious ploy by the Ford Motor Company to generate some buzz around the stateside launch of the European Ford Fiesta model.

It seems that Ford has signed up 100 “agents” who have been given a new Ford Fiesta to test-drive for 6 months. In Ford’s words, they’ll be “lifestreaming their experiences, and completing monthly missions to show you what the Fiesta is all about”, via personal blogs, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

So who are the agents? As you might expect, Ford has smartly selected a group of new-media savvy individuals from Generation Y who had to post an application video to be chosen. A glance at these Millennial profiles seems to indicate most of the agents were selected for their online presence, as many of them have already established blog sites and a built-in audience.

Are these agents really just paid shills? It appears there’s no “pay-for-say” involved, although gas, maintenance and insurance are included with each vehicle. There’s also a little expense money thrown in to cover “mission” expenses. And Ford promises they’ll let their agents speak freely about their experiences.

So if all this is true, kudos to Ford. It’s obvious they have great confidence in the new Fiesta. And I can think of no better way to get the blogosphere buzzing about your hot new product than by seeding it with 100 hand-picked social media mavens.

Yet, as I applaud the effort, the proof of success will be in the excitement the Fiesta Movement is able to generate. There are lots of ideas, from reality TV shows to football game plans, that looked good on paper but fell apart in the execution.

Will the “missions” build the necessary excitement once the initial buzz wears off? (After all, this campaign is supposed to go for 6 months.) Will it be a non-step lovefest or will the agents be allowed to add a healthy dose of reality by complaining about a thing or two? Will the online buzz translate into offline sales?

Stay tuned. The missions just got underway this week. We’ll see if Ford is able to keep the Fiesta Movement humming in high gear.

This blog entry was previously published May 11, 2009 on Loyalty Truth.

Saturn and the perils of Social Media.

For most companies, starting a social Web site is a great idea. There’s no better way to strengthen a customer relationship than with an open and honest dialogue. But there’s a flip side to the coin. Once the lines of communication are open, it also means engaging when times are tough and the news is bad.

Which brings us to the Saturn division of General Motors.

Just over a year ago, Saturn launched ImSaturn, a social network site for Saturn “drivers, employees, fans and enthusiasts.” Early posts talked of snazzy new models and featured entries from happy Saturn customers. It was a feel good place.

But everything changed on February 17, 2009—when, if you’re at the controls of the ImSaturn site, a crisis kicks in. That’s the day parent company GM announces publicly that the Saturn brand is being discontinued after the 2010 model year.

Now if you’re a true blue ImSaturn follower, this raises some serious issues. Like: Is Saturn really going out of business forever? And: Why should I ever buy a Saturn again?

Cut to the ImSaturn Web site. Where it gradually becomes apparent that the Saturn company bloggers—who have been put in a difficult if not impossible spot—just don’t have the answers to the pertinent questions they need to address.

A February 18 post announces GM will investigate the “spin off of an independent Saturn”. A March 2 post says the same thing. On March 31, they continue to look at “the spin off of Saturn as an independent company.” Then, from April 1 to April 15, except for a blurb on a new TV commercial, the ImSaturn site has no posts at all.

What makes this is odd is that during the same April 1-15 period, on a brand fan site appropriately named SaturnFans, 20 posts appear. Twenty. Including several stories on potential Saturn buyout partners and an entry on a public rally to save the company. There’s even an online petition to “SAVE SATURN”.

It’s enough to give you a disconcerting impression: the brand fans are more passionate about saving the company than the brand employees.

Meanwhile, if Saturn wants to monitor negative chatter on the Web, it need not go far. It’s happening in a public posting area right on the ImSaturn site, where positive feedback is offset by entries like “I will never buy another Saturn!!!!” and “You built crap and America never forgives!” Posts that have so far gone unchallenged.

The takeaway is that while there’s a vast upside to social Web sites, as the Saturn experience shows there is also a small but real potential downside. Bad things can happen. They can begin to spiral faster than you can react to them. And even your best intentions can come up as empty as a gas tank on E.

This blog entry was previously published April 28, 2009 on Loyalty Truth.