Ford Motor Company is seeing unprecedented global success. Although they have made significant change, the brand health in Australia was under pressure. Since the manufacturing closure announcement, negative sentiment towards the business was having an impact on product perceptions. When focus groups were presented unbranded Ford vehicles, they ranked significantly higher and perceived to be more expensive than when revealed with the badge. Once discovering who made the vehicles, they were frequently dismissed. We had to create a dialogue and get Australians to evaluate the products on their own merit, without the bias.

A phased approach was used to have people stop and think, before opening themselves up to hearing from Ford. The tease launched unbranded vehicles with #GUESSWHO for people to guess the mystery manufacturer themselves. In order to make an impact in 2 weeks, the campaign leveraged one of the biggest media events – AFL Grand Final Day (Australia’s equivalent to the Super Bowl). The challenge launched on TV during the game, Outdoor and impactful digital to drive conversation online. We then used those same channels to reveal the Ford badges and prove to many Australians that exciting things were coming.

During the #GuessWho campaign we received 1 in 3 guesses of the manufacturer to be amongst other well perceived brands including Audi, BMW, Mazda, and Toyota – proving that Ford’s products can compete.

Key results:

· Ford’s most successful engagement strategy with participation from 1 in every 106 Australian adult internet users (91,971 entries in 2 weeks)

· Highest recorded weekly traffic to ford.com.au with 45% uplift after reveal

· Up to 2000%+ increase in registered interest for upcoming launch vehicles

· Ford highest ranked amongst key competition in organic search

· 4x greater CTR than industry average

· 2625% CTR increase to ford.com.au from social