There’s a legendary rivalry between Chevrolet and Ford. Particularly between the Chevrolet Camaro and the Ford Mustang, two iconic American muscle cars.

This ongoing battle of one-upmanship dates all the way back to 1966, and fans are usually passionately for one and against the other, though the rivalry is generally friendly.

Our brief was to wish the Ford Mustang a happy 55th birthday in a way that’s both fun and playful, but actually generates positive attention for Camaro. We wanted to crash their party, steal their thunder and turn their occasion into our PR win.

The objectives were simple – spark positive conversation about Camaro among both the Chevrolet and Ford communities and beyond. On this short-lived occasion and with a limited budget, we were aiming for 375,000 video views and as many likes, shares and comments as possible.

Challenge accepted.

Our main audience was Chevrolet fans, but we knew we could create buzz among the Ford and wider car-fan communities too. We targeted members of Chevrolet-related groups on social platforms, as well as members of broader automotive fan groups such as racing, drifting, Formula One and more.

We did three things to make sure our film was relevant to social:

We ensured it was short. At 20 seconds, it’s an easily snackable length.

We made sure it was fun and enjoyable to watch.

We made sure it tapped into the community zeitgeist, by playing on the brand rivalry. We called Mustang ‘little pony’ and made out that all the little pony wanted for his birthday was a Camaro… This was guaranteed to tickle our fans and ruffle Ford’s feathers.

When added together, these three things made sure that the film was fun, relevant and shareable.

A small studio. A Camaro. A cake. A few party decorations. And an adorable little pony called Cookie. That’s all we used to bring this together.

From brief to live date was just 30 days, with a one-day shoot in between, and a tight budget of just $21,000 for the whole production. It was a small project, that made a big impact.

The film was placed into the newsfeed of the social channels our audience used the most – Facebook, Instagram – with a total media buy of just $6,000.

It’s fair to say that for an occasion that lasted just a single day, our film spread like wildfire.

With a goal of 375,000 video views, our little birthday gift generated:

More than 2.2 Million video views

More than 14,800 shares

More than 2,200 comments

Not only that, but it received organic coverage all around the world. It was translated and re-shared by multiple foreign markets, and even provoked a response from Ford all the way over in Colombia.

The film was shared and written about across the globe – appearing in the Middle East, North America, South America, South East Asia, Europe and even as far away as New Zealand.

We smashed our social benchmarks, delighted car fans everywhere and turned Mustang’s birthday into a celebration of Camaro. Now that’s how you crash a party.