Comments on: Ford Fiesta Movement Chat With Scott Monty (video)

By: Jillian Anderson

Jillian Anderson — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 14:03:40 +0000

Great video. I love this marketing concept for Ford. Good luck to Scott on getting his way to have a “completely consumer generated ad campaign.” I think that’s a great idea. I look forward to see how this turns out.

By: Ms. Single Mama

Ms. Single Mama — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:42:20 +0000

I think calling a blogger a “paid reviewer” is incredibly unprofessional and insulting.

I am not getting paid. I am borrowing a car for six months.

I already have a car, which I will keep. There will be no income to report on taxes because I am not being paid. This is going to be fun, that’s why we’re doing it. The missions will be exciting and my readers will get to experience it all with me.

The reason this campaign will be a success (there are a lot of them) but one major reason is that Ford gave us content (in the way of missions).

I think everyone is missing the big picture here. There is nothing wrong with a corporation allowing bloggers to sample their products, especially if it’s framed around this valuable content for our blogs. That’s a secret 99% of marketers are missing.

Create the content, create a reason for content and the buzz will follow.

By: Amy Ziari

Amy Ziari — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:40:47 +0000

Allen, I really hope I’m not hijacking your thread, but I have a friend who was one of the winners, and thought it would be helpful to take this conversation one step further and do an interview with her on my blog.

After all, I know there’s a lot of people interested in this campaign, but I still haven’t heard much from the Agents themselves yet – especially the larger picture issues we have been discussing here! To preface, I hadn’t even talked to her about winning until I did the interview.

If any of you are interested, you can check it out here.

By: Delicia Dawn Lewis

Delicia Dawn Lewis — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:45:33 +0000

VOLVO UPDATE:
Ford management has pretty much respected Volvo management, That is why Volvo is the only Ford owned product that is still a safe car to drive. I am happy the Swedish government has announced that Volvo would be the recipient of government loan money according to Motor Authority. Volvo will receive US$572 million in loan guarantees because Ford has given their word that they will see Volvo through to its sale. Now, that would be a problem for me actually expecting Ford to keep it’s word LOL, but since Ford is barley hanging on financially, they will sell. I mean how can you expect Alan Mulally to live off of 13 million a year? Poor Mulally family. You can bet none of them are driving a car with a $20 defective cruise control switch!
My PR GROUP will be the thousands of wronged Ford Customers. The man who almost had his truck paid off, then it catches fire, and without transportation/ looses his job/house/family ……..It has the domino affect in real peoples lives. Where is our bridge loan, just in case we need it?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Allen – what is your take on the people that were selected? any of them stand out to you?

By: centernetworks

centernetworks — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I will leave my thoughts for now on that until we see the first posts from the paid reviewers. My hope is that certain ones on the list have changed their ways :)

By: Scott Monty

Scott Monty — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Glad to have seen you again today, Allen. I enjoyed our chat. But let me remind you: the agents are not paid. :-)

I do need to better understand why you think this is not a social media campaign. First you say that Ford is “buying media mentions” – which is advertising; and then you call it more of a PR campaign – which is earned. But you say that because we’re using social networking tools, it doesn’t make it a social media campaign.

Okay, so what *would* make it social media in your opinion?

As as far as your critique of my choice of phrases in responding to Bill, I’m not engaging to make it seem like I’m a corporate executive. Ford got me and my personality when they hired me. And each employee that engages on their own on behalf of the company will collectively give Ford a personality – something corporatespeak/legalese won’t ever allow us to do.

Thanks for your dialog and debate here. Clearly we disagree on it – and that’s okay. It’s the conversation that matters, right?

Scott

By: Happy Mercedes Owner

Happy Mercedes Owner — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Great post and interview Allen. I don’t know what you call this but something is not social media just because they use YouTube and Twitter. How they can call this a “movement” when it’s 100 people hand-selected by the company is beyond me. What a disconnect from reality. When real people who aren’t being paid by Ford decide to spend their time posting about their new Friesta then you’ll have a movement.

Scott – you don’t consider giving somebody use of a car for free and paying their insurance and gas payment? I think that’s considered an in-kind payment by the IRS? Actually Allen, wouldn’t these people need to pay taxes based on the value of the in-kind payment?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

@Allen, you being the “Creative Problem Solver”. check out the 4,000 or so video applications for the Fiesta Agent wannabes, and select your 100 choices.

IMO I’d rather read opinions on the car from ordinary people instead of the usual predictable fluff from auto rag writers.

To me you sound like nothing is a good idea unless its yours.

By: centernetworks

centernetworks — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

"When real people who aren't being paid by Ford decide to spend their time posting about their new Friesta then you'll have a movement."

I mentioned this to Scott - it's super easy to pay people to talk about your product or service, much harder to get them to talk on their own. Scott said that there's no way to do that with a car that's not even in production yet.

As for the payment and possible IRS issues, it's been years since I did corporate taxes and so I will need to defer to a current tax accountant. I will try to see what I can dig up today.

By: centernetworks

centernetworks — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I like reading a combo for a car – regular people who aren’t paid plus auto rag writers as you call them. This way you get more specific details on things like gas mileage and oil consumption combined with driveability, etc.

Sorry, I don’t have time to watch 4,000 videos – let me know whic 100 you selected – thanks.

By: Scott Monty

Scott Monty — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

And I think that if we see people who come into contact with these 100 start posting photos, videos, etc., then it’ll be a movement. We simply plant the seeds with the agents and their work will (hopefully) create the movement that we’re hoping for.

By: craig

craig — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Allen this is a great post, and unlike other bloggers I read who just like to make comments and hide behind their computers, I applaud you for actually being a man and going out to meet Scott and get the real story!

By: centernetworks

centernetworks — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Right - so it's not about getting feedback and making changes, it's about marketing/pr/etc :) nothing wrong with that.

I am looking forward to watching how this campaign moves.

By: centernetworks

centernetworks — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks Craig – luckily Scott was in town so we were able to meetup quickly – I appreciate his willingness to chat as well.