A weekly case study
Controlling Damage: Ford Motor Co., enmeshed in one of the worst
product recalls to hit the automotive industry, is turning to the Web to
protect its name. Since August, when Bridgestone/Firestone Inc.
announced a recall of 6.5 million tires, on the Ford Explorer, Ford has
blasted the Web with a simple banner ad that it has used on about 200
Web sites, with the potential to reach as many as 564 million people.
Ford has previously used the Web to launch products, but never to this
extent. As a result, Ford's recall advertisement is now the No. 1 ad on
the Internet, and Ford has jumped to the 25th largest online advertiser,
ranked by so-called impressions or potential viewers, according to
Jupiter Media Metrix Inc., New York. That's up from its July rank of a
distant 325. Media Metrix executives note Ford has taken online
advertising to new heights by tapping the Web's ability to act as a
damage-control vehicle.
Official News Here: "For official Ford News on
the Firestone recall, click here," says the ad,
running above Ford's flowing script logo. With a
mouse click, browsers would then be linked to
Ford's recall site within the ford.com home page
(www.ford.com). The recall site includes such
information as which three tire models are
included in the recall, which tires could be used
to replace them, and authorized replacement
dealers. It also includes Ford's press releases
and a statement from Chief Executive Officer Jacques Nasser assuring
owners that "there are two things that we never take lightly: Your
safety and your trust."
Ford's strategy was first to get mass reach from major Internet service
providers and Web sites, including America Online Inc., its CompuServe
division, and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Internet service. Next it hit the
news sites, including those of New York Times, USA Today, Washington
Post and The Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile those papers were running
almost daily stories on the recall, including those questioning the
stability of the Explorer and whether Ford and Firestone, a unit of
Japan's Bridgestone Corp., withheld important safety information from
the public. Ford then bought space on networks of smaller Web sites
and leveraged existing online partnerships, such as with the
women-oriented iVillage.com and youth hangout bolt.com. With
Carpoint, in which it owns about a 25% stake, it created pop-up
warnings for Carpoint's registered Explorer owners who would have
been affected by the recalled tires.
100% Online: Traffic to ford.com has
jumped to more than 1.4 million in August
from 900,000 visitors in July, the most
recent figures available from Media Metrix.
Ford is so pleased with its Internet
success that it continues to increase the
Internet portion of the budget as a
percentage of the total campaign. Typically
Internet ads comprise 4% to 5% of a
typical product campaign, but for Ford's recall efforts, that has jumped
to 10%, says a Ford spokeswoman. Its limited television advertising,
two spots with Mr. Nasser, stopped in early September and it is now
planning to pull its full-page newspaper ads, which have been running
weekly in 125 daily newspapers as well as in 35 or so targeted ethnic
papers.
"Our budget will go 100% online," says Christine Toth, communications
supervisor at Ford's longtime ad agency, J. Walter Thompson, a unit of
WPP Group. Online results have been average, with .13% of the
potential audience clicking on the ad to jump to Ford's Web site. Still,
that number means 735,000 users have clicked through.
"So far we feel like it's been somewhat successful," says Ms. Toth.
Removing Tarnish: Whether the online campaign, which Jupiter
estimates cost $3.5 million, has helped Ford's overall image is difficult
to
track, but it probably hasn't harmed it. Charlie Buchwalter, vice
president of media research for Jupiter's AdRelevance division, says the
ad "gives a very strong signal that this company does not want to
sweep this under the rug."
--Karen Lundegaard