In recent years, Ford Motor Company has embraced some more modern forms of advertising, having recently launched a highly successful TikTok campaign for the 2022 Ford Maverick and seeking to reduce marketing costs by using connected vehicle services. One thing the automaker hasn’t spent much money on in recent years, however, is Super Bowl advertising after passing on those pricey spots back in 2018 and again in 2021, all while dissing its cross-town rival, General Motors, for its efforts at producing a multi-million dollar advert. Judging by comments from Ford CEO Jim Farley at the recent 2022 Alliance Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference, that doesn’t look likely to change, either, at least in terms of Super Bowl commercials for EVs.
“I launched Scion. I’m not convinced we need public advertising for Model e, if we do our job,” Farley said. “We haven’t needed it for Lightning, haven’t needed it for E-Transit. Don’t need it for commercial vehicles. Mustang Mach-E, we advertised, we took the ads out, because we’ve been sold out for two years. Now, it’s early days. It’s first inning, second inning maybe, but I’m not convinced we need public advertising. Well, see, our model’s messed up. We spend $600 or $700 on a vehicle to promote it, and we spend nothing post warranty on the customer experience.”
“It’d be much better if we tried to develop an ecosystem where 100 percent came back, and we gave them experiences, and that’s our marketing,” Farley added. “You buy Ford Model e and after a year we’re going to give you a complete detail of the vehicle, check all your software’s up to date. You get a complete birthday for your vehicle. We should be doing stuff like that instead of doing Super Bowl ads. If you see a company doing … if you ever see Ford Motor Company doing a Super Bowl ad on our electric vehicle, sell the stock.”
This is certainly an interesting revelation given the huge amount of stock other automakers place in paying for the creation of clever Super Bowl ads, but it’s not entirely surprising. After all, the personalized touch that Jim Farley is alluding to here is part of the automaker’s strategy to improve customer experience across the board, a movement that will include pickup and delivery service at all Ford dealers starting next year, as Ford Authority reported earlier today.
We’ll have more on Ford’s marketing strategy soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for ongoing Ford news coverage.
Comments
Had great experience with Ford even with recalls. Got 2, 2022 models, got the recalls done in 2 days for one of them. Order process was easy and got updates at each status change. 12 weeks from order to driveway. Not everything went perfect for everyone during covid and material storages, but some people will never be happy either.
Super Bowl adds are crazy expensive and they don’t convince me to buy their products. I can honest say after 46 years of driving ford pickups because they work good for me not because of some tv add.
Amen to that. Food and beverage are the main plays in Super Bowl spots. Viewers are now groomed to expect super creative entertaining spots with a big wow factor in them. Ford should reconsider pulling out of SEMA. To me SEMA is terrific marketing. Especially with the Mustang drifting. Mean, badass and in your face sells vehicles.
To whom it may concern I tried to order a 2023 or 2022 Shelby Mustang and I’m told that a dealership cannot get allocation for set car I’m so disappointed they say the order car he has a better chance on getting one and they’re telling me that it might be 2024 or 2025 before I even could see one the dealership is not allocated to get a Shelby at all this year trying to figure out why that’s my ultimate dream car and I’d like to get one somebody could notify me and find out and let me know what the hang-up is other than the chip or why can’t the dealership and get one