Ford Revs Up Its Biggest Brand Overhaul in Over a Decade 

Ford is hitting the reset button with a brand new world model platform to shift the 122-year-old firm from product-first to customer-centric. The auto model has spent the final two years growing “Prepared, Set, Ford,” which can come to life with a advertising and marketing marketing campaign kicking off immediately (Sept. 10). The platform, created by Wieden+Kennedy, comes at a time when Ford is trying to differentiate in a crowded market flush with powertrain selections, evolving purchasing instruments, and shifting buyer preferences. The corporate needs to reassure individuals—significantly youthful customers—that Ford has the correct automobiles for them, whereas additionally creating pleasure by leaning into its storied motorsports heritage. The primary advert for “Prepared, Set, Ford” is a dramatic, fast-paced homage to the individuals who drive Fords and the gutsy issues they will do, like racing automobiles, driving off-road, and even herding cattle. It ends with a Henry Ford quote: “Whether or not you suppose you’ll be able to, or suppose you’ll be able to’t, you’re proper.”  “We need to join with customers on an emotional degree,” Ford chief advertising and marketing officer Lisa Materazzo advised ADWEEK, “and to additionally sign for each current loyalists and possibly those that haven’t thought of Ford that there’s one thing enjoyable and thrilling occurring at Ford, and they need to examine us out.”Instruments of empowermentA huge theme is functionality, with Ford presenting its car lineup by the lens of what they may also help three completely different life-style audiences obtain. For instance, a Bronco may very well be a match for “explorers searching for discovery,” whereas a Mustang could also be a match for “boundary-pushers craving velocity and efficiency,” and the F-Sequence may also help “doers and creators” get issues completed. Different “Prepared, Set, Ford” guarantees or “equities” embody ardour, group, and belief. Motorsports will play a bigger position because the Ford prepares to return to Components 1 subsequent 12 months after greater than a 20-year hiatus. Ford has additionally invested in off-road racing, with its Bronco Desert Racer and Ranger Raptor successful the 2024 Baja 1000. The advert will run throughout linear TV (together with Thursday Night time Soccer), digital, social, and out-of-home channels within the U.S., as a part of the marketing campaign’s first part. Part two will start in early October, when Ford will goal life-style audiences extra straight. The marketing campaign will roll out to most of Ford’s world markets by the tip of the 12 months. ‘Greater than a advertising and marketing marketing campaign’Over the previous couple of years, model well being knowledge has proven that world audiences knew and revered Ford, however the model was in want of modernization, based on Alix Toothman, world government technique director at Wieden+Kennedy, which has labored with Ford since 2018. The company noticed a possibility to level the lens at Ford’s clients. “There are such a lot of Ford tremendous followers,” Toothman stated. “There aren’t many different manufacturers that folks will tattoo on their our bodies.”’ They needed their technique to replicate Ford’s huge bets, together with phasing out sedans and doubling down on iconic merchandise just like the Bronco, which Ford introduced again in 2021.“Prepared, Set, Ford” is “greater than a advertising and marketing marketing campaign,” based on Materazzo. Ford’s final world model platform was “Go Additional,” launched in 2012 to highlight its innovation and manufacturing.“Though what you’re seeing is the exterior expression of that within the type of a model marketing campaign, it’s essential to grasp that it’s deeply embedded internally throughout the group,” she stated. “We now have reoriented all of our efforts internally round these 4 core equities and people three life-style audiences.”Materazzo added that it was essential to embed the model platform into the group to drive actual change and unite beneath a single message. “I really consider that the hallmark of a world-class advertising and marketing group is to point out up globally in a really constant and unified method,” she stated.