Unleashing the Mustang Supercar for Ford

Challenge

To create mass awareness and drive excitement for the Ford Mustang Supercar reveal in lieu of a physical media event and help define the Ford Performance brand in Australia.

Culture

Ford Australia’s social media audience is highly engaged, and new Facebook and YouTube content distribution tools can allow brands to “premiere” highly anticipated reveals. This insight, paired with limited vehicle access, led Pulse and Ford Australia to develop a digital-first social media and earned reveal campaign in February 2019.

Creativity

Pulse produced a suite of platform-specific social media, video news release, imagery and B-roll assets shot in top secret in a single day to be released two weeks later. The hero video was fast paced and energetic, leaving fans wanting more and was cut specifically for each social channel. The content was filmed at a secret location in Queensland, inviting 11 spokespeople and stakeholders to participate in content production. Assets were teased out via the new Premiere functions via Ford Australia’s YouTube and Facebook channels and was also supported by race team the global Ford Performance social accounts to maximise organic reach. From an earned media perspective, our strategy was to not inform media of the news before the announcement to ensure leaks were contained. With this in mind, we pitched all assets to national media in unison with the social media timings to ensure we received maximum reach through all available mediums.

Clout

Premiere teaser content for the reveal landed its own earned coverage, while the Mustang Supercar hero video on Ford owned channels reached over 1.3M users, viewed over 450,000 times, with 25,000+ engagements. Ford Australia saw an immediate rise in positive sentiment for the brand following release and mentions of the Ford Performance brand on social media in Australia spiking. From an earned media perspective, 594 pieces of coverage was achieved, reaching an audience of 122 million. Coverage was achieved on all national television stations, as well as making headlines in all national and state news outlets. Key Ford spokespeople were quoted throughout majority of coverage, further building Ford’s presence and reputation amongst the racing community.