Executive  Summary  Ford  Focus  is  the  UK’s  best-­‐selling  small  family  car.  Despite  industry  growth,  Focus’s  segment  was  shrinking,  provoking  aggressive  marketing  tactics  from  competitors.  Ford  needed  to  launch  the  Focus  in  a  unique  and  innovative  manner  to  maintain  leadership.      Partnering  with  the  Metro,  Mindshare  created  WARP  a  digital  magazine  exploring  the  future  of  tech.  WARP’S  mobile/tablet  lead  strategy  resonated  with  the  target  audiences’  primary  interest  and  differentiating  them  from  competitors.      Background  and  objectives  Focus  has  the  highest  share  C  segment  market.  While  the  C  segment  has  increased  in  units  overall,  it  is  not  keeping  up  with  the  market  as  a  whole;  the  C  segment  only  grew  7%  during  2013,  compared  with  11%  market  growth  for  the  overall  automotive  industry.    As  a  result  competition  within  the  C  segment  was  fierce  with  little  differentiation  between  messaging.    In  order  to  overcome  this  Ford  needed  to  build  a  desire  around  the  new  Focus,  amplify  the  car’s  style  and  cutting  edge  technological  features  (in  line  with  the  client  brief)  and  do  this  in  a  way  that’s  innovative  and  unlike  any  competitor  activity.      For  this  launch,  rather  than  planning  a  standard  print  or  display  campaign  we  recognised  that  Ford  needed  to  work  with  a  partner  to  create  content,  which  allowed  them  to  connect  with  their  target  audience  (Lorenzo)  and  build  favourable  opinion  around  the  car,  it’s  features  and  tech.  Ford  also  tasked  us  to  ensure  that  the  response  was  an  inventive,  adaptive  and  digitally-­‐lead  content  solution,  however  didn’t  have  any  content  to  promote  themselves.  In  addition  to  this,  from  sign  off,  Ford  required  activity  to  be  turned  around  within  2  weeks  meaning  that  time  was  against  us.      Business  objective:  Maintain  market  leadership  in  C  segment.    Marketing  Objective:  Increase  favourable  opinion  (thus  consideration)  by  building  an  emotional  connection  with  the  nameplate.  Role  for  Comms:  Launch  and  define  the  New  Focus  through  amplification  of  its  style  and  cutting  edge  technology  features.      Research  also  showed  that  along  with  various  other  topics,  technology  was  a  key  passion  for  the  target  audience,  presenting  an  opportunity  to  amplify  the  new  technology  features  of  the  Focus.    Insight  It  was  evident  from  the  brief  that  Lorenzo  was  digitally  savvy  being  62%  more  likely  to  access  the  internet  through  a  tablet  and  24%  more  likely  to  access  the  internet  via  their  mobile  than  the  average  online  user  (TGI,  2014)  presenting  a  key  opportunity  for  a  tablet/mobile  lead  strategy.      

The  plan  Taking  the  above  research  into  account  Mindshare  partnered  with  the  Metro  to  launch  WARP  an  exclusive  four-­‐part  digital  only  magazine,  available  across  mobile  and  tablet,  which  brings  you  the  future,  now.    WARP  was  automatically  downloaded,  within  the  Metro  app,  along  with  your  Friday  digital  edition  of  the  Metro.  With  everything  from  3D  printing  human  ears  to  predicting  what  ‘Back  to  the  Future  II  Got  Right’,  the  digital  magazine  was  packed  with  need-­‐to-­‐know  technology  and  innovation.  Each  edition  also  featured  a  Focus  specific  article  looking  at  the  innovative  technology  from  the  new  car  and  how  it  changed  a  user’s  driving  experience.      In  addition  to  this,  WARP  also  featured  a  hidden  section  called  Flip,  powered  by  accelerometer  technology,  where  users  could  physically  flip  their  tablet  or  mobile  device  to  unlock  additional  historical  content  looking  at  innovations  that  changed  the  way  we  live,  linking  the  second  creative  territory.    While  the  new  Ford  Focus  is  packed  with  smart,  useful  technology  to  ‘make  you  go  further’,  this  partnership  established  Focus  as  a  leader  in  the  tech  space,  meeting  the  role  for  comms,  tapping  into  one  of  Lorenzo’s  passion  points  and  achieving  Ford’s  ambition  to  employ  a  mobile  first  media  strategy.    It  is  important  to  note  that  Mindshare,  Blue  Hive  and  the  Metro  team  worked  collaboratively  around  the  clock  to  produce  WARP,  a  completely  bespoke  product  that  is  a  first  for  both  a  traditional  print  partner  and  a  market-­‐leading  motoring  brand.  Each  week  new  editorial  articles  had  to  be  written,  shot,  approved  and  set  live  allowing  for  only  4  working  days  for  content  to  be  produced.    To  promote  WARP,  display  ads  ran  across  mobile,  tablet,  email  and  print  amplifying  the  magazine  in  association  with  the  New  Focus  launch.    Results  WARP  attracted  over  22,000  users  each  week,  with  over  35,000  users  reading  the  magazine  on  the  first  week  of  launch.  Overall  throughout  the  4  week  campaign  period  the  activity  reached  54,808  unique  browsers,  illustrating  that  the  same  users  were  re-­‐visiting  the  content  on  a  weekly  basis  demonstrating  its  engagement.  It  was  also  evident  that  users  were  keen  to  read  the  entire  magazine,  rather  than  snacking  on  the  content,  with  a  total  of  2.4  million  page  views  across  all  editions  and  devices.    In  order  to  allow  us  to  measure  success  against  the  business  and  marketing  objective  a  study  was  conducted  by  3rd  party  research  company  focusing  on  1,200  Metro  readers,  key  study  take  outs  showed:      

• 79%  uplift  in  favourable  opinion  of  the  new  Focus    

• 86%  uplift  in  associating  Focus  as  innovative    

• 90%  uplift  in  associating  Focus  with  cutting-­‐edge  technology      

• 38%  of  respondents  who  had  been  exposed  to  WARP,  or  WARP  promotion,  stated  they  took  some  sort  of  action  as  a  result  of  the  activity,  including  searching  for  more  information  on  the  new  Ford  Focus,  talking  about  the  content  and  visiting  the  website  

 • 46%  of  all  respondents  who  recalled  the  ad  also  stated  they  would  consider  a  Ford  Focus  for  their  next  car  

purchase    Client  view  “The  mobile  first  strategy  of  WARP  meant  Digital  was  core  to  this  important  campaign.  Ford  has  always  embraced  innovative  ideas  /  technology  and  WARP  was  a  great  opportunity  to  try  something  new,  differentiating  us  from  others  in  the  market  –  especially  important  for  the  Focus  launch.  WARP  was  also  well  received  internally  and  we  were  extremely  pleased  to  be  involved  in  such  an  exciting  piece  of  work.”    Rachel  Moore:  Media  &  Fixed  Marketing  Manager  for  Ford  UK