Ford to ’roadblock’ the world in TV campaign

Every commercial television station in more than 40 countries

around the world will show the same commercial at 9pm on November 1 as

Ford Motor Company ’roadblocks’ the world with its new advertising

campaign.

In the UK, viewers of ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and all satellite

channels will see the two-minute ad. A one-minute version of the ad will

run for a further two weeks on satellite and cable channels.

The cost of the global roadblock is understood to be between dollars 10m

and dollars 15m (pounds 6.25m and pounds 9.4m), with the pan-European

broadcast costing dollars 2.4m (pounds 1.5m) alone.

The campaign ignores the old adage to ’think global, act local’, by both

thinking and acting globally in its showcasing of seven of the company’s

brands: Ford, Volvo, Mazda, Jaguar, Lincoln, Mercury and Aston Martin,

two of which - Lincoln and Mercury - are unavailable in the UK.

The campaign is designed to show the different roles the manufacturer’s

brands play in people’s lives around the world, presenting Ford as a

’human’, consumer-oriented company rather than a faceless

conglomerate.

The main theme of the ad is saying goodbye to the old millennium and

ushering in the new - underlined by a shot of the Millennium Dome and a

rendition of the company’s global anthem, ’Just wave hello’, which

provides the soundtrack to the TV spot and is performed by 12-year-old

soprano Charlotte Church.

The ad depicts different ethnic groups from around the world greeting

each other and using Ford products in a range of situations.

Creative work for the ad was handled by J Walter Thompson, Ford’s main

agency in the US. Media planning and buying was carried out by

MindShare.

JWT handles Ford’s Jaguar and Mazda brands in the UK, while Ford’s main

business is split between sister agency Ogilvy & Mather and Young &

Rubicam.

’The ad is meant to show that Ford has got it all - how the company

touches people’s lives through every culture, country and class, across

all its different brands,’ said Kenny Hill, account manager for Jaguar

at JWT London.

He added: ’It’s not just glory shots of cars - it’s more about people

and how they interact with them.’

The ad is another sign of global marketing initiatives driving creative

content on the domestic level.

The new Ford ad can also be viewed at the company’s web site at

www.ford.com.

View it, then e-mail your reactions to marketing@haynet.com.

This article was first published on Marketing