When the Ford Motor Company of Australia launched the 2009 Ford Fiesta earlier this year, it was determined to make an aggressive impact on Australia's rapidly growing (and increasingly competitive) small car market. With a newly invigorated local marketing team and a belief that this car was the one to make serious inroads into the competition, Ford was eager to make sure that the right audience heard its message. It required a campaign capable of reaching beyond Ford's traditional family audience and into the hearts and minds of the youth market.

To achieve this Ford drew upon nearly two years' worth of mobile marketing experiences to create an SMS-enabled campaign that has allowed the company to communicate with consumers on their terms, using the language and the technologies of the target market.

Connecting with customers

Ford began its foray into mobile marketing in 2007 by engaging the multi-channel services pioneer, Ad.IQ, to help develop short message service (SMS) and mobile Internet response mechanisms for advertising campaigns.

Tim Burton, customer loyalty manager at Ford explains, "We wanted to explore more innovative ways of connecting with consumers and to capitalise on the growth of mobile marketing. To achieve this we needed to align ourselves with a partner at the forefront of mobile innovation. Ad.IQ was our choice because of their experience with mobile technologies and because of the work they had already done with some of the automotive companies in the U.K."

With the help of Ad.IQ, Ford's next step was to SMS-enable the 13-Ford (13 36 73) telephone number and to ensure that it was used in all press and above-the-line advertising. Burton continues, "We use 13-Ford on all touch-points involved in customer acquisition. The idea is to make it easy for consumers to respond immediately, wherever they are."

Ad.IQ also helped to develop focused mobile websites (or mobi sites) which provide consumers with another place to go for more specific product information. The mobi sites can be viewed with equal clarity regardless of a mobile web browser. Burton believes these are an important and natural extension of Ford's electronic direct mail and television commercial campaigns.

As Ford rolls out each new campaign, Ad.IQ captures metrics such as the total number of SMS responses; the number of brochures, test drives and quotes requested through the different channels. The information is provided to Ford on a daily basis, enabling executives to evaluate the effectiveness of each program and to ensure a positive return on investment.

Now that's service

For the launch of the new Fiesta Ford's mobile campaigning reached new levels of sophistication.

Rather than following the previous practice of simply logging and then forwarding consumer requests to the appropriate dealer, Ford used the Ad.IQ platform to follow-up each consumer response.

Following initial online brochure requests, consumers receive an automatic follow-up SMS message confirming the requested information had been received and providing (consumers) with subsequent steps along the purchasing funnel. Consumers who provided their postal details are also given the option to reply with the keyword DRIVE, which triggers a call from their local Ford dealer to arrange a test drive. It all works to provide additional touch-points for Ford and at the same time, kept the dealers on their toes.

In the past two years, Ford's work with Ad.IQ has opened up an additional channel for lead generation; one that has helped the company to engage with a new group of consumers. Burton believes the program has delivered many benefits and says, "The results are growing year-on-year with every campaign that we do. As society moves to more instant gratification, the immediate nature of SMS appeals to consumers more than ever. We've reached the stage now where SMS is promoted on whatever channel we go out with."

Asked to nominate the top three benefits of incorporating mobile technologies into Ford's marketing campaigns, Burton lists: "First is the ability to engage with customers in a different way. Second is the way it is helping us to change perceptions of our brand. And third is the wow factor of being seen as a company that's up to speed with technology trends."

Burton notes the company's move into mobile marketing has succeeded despite the need to navigate around numerous legislative and Ford internal compliance requirements. "Whatever we've wanted, Ad.IQ has been able to deliver. They've become a real partner in our business and an extension of our marketing team. They keep us abreast of international trends and their expertise has been an important element in our drive to change perceptions of the Ford brand in Australia," he concludes.