One of the key things when implementing an effective strategic communications and social media campaign is to make sure you effectively use the tools and technologies effectively but also make sure that the content and ideas are also there.  Many campaigns have initiated just Facebook and Twitter, while there are others that have successfully implemented several of these various digital platforms.

But what happens when you implement Facebook, Instagram, and Crowdsourcing principles all together – what do you get?  You get a brilliant campaign that is changing the game for the rest of the brands to catch up on.  This is what Ford has done with their Ford Fiesta campaign, or otherwise known as Fiestagram.  Even the title of the concept of the campaign is unique and fits with the overall purpose and use of the digital technology platform of Instagram. According to this video that discusses the nature of this campaign for Ford, this is one of the first campaigns to use both Facebook and Instagram to create a photosharing contest to promote a product such as the Ford Fiesta. In addition, this campaign also uses tagging principles for updates appearing via Twitter with the hashtag #Fiestagram where people can track their photos and others being submitted per week.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6JI80agHUM[/youtube]

The reason why the iconic American auto company decided to use Instagram as one of their main features and tools for this campaign is that they wanted to associate their product with a visual platform that does host various photos that are trendy, fashionable, and has a universal language with pictures that can communicate to global audiences.  This particular campaign was very successful due to the fact that it was targeted and specific in its actions and uses within a particular social media platform (Instagram), it created a level of trust and transparency for the brand of Ford with having people upload their own photos to a centralized location and share this with others (ex. crowd sourcing via Facebook).  The power of user-generated content for brands is priceless – people feel inspired if they are motivated to contribute and think that they have a possibility that their work could be featured in a campaign.  Look at how this has played out for Doritos and their Super Bowl campaign commercials – this has really generated huge return and impressions for the company.

Lastly. it involved gamification principles that motivated people to submit photos, keep track of what others were saying and uploading during the campaign, and generated numerous discussions online on various blogs and websites which of course translated to coverage in the traditional news.

In summary, what we can take away with this campaign is the trend that we are going to see more integrated campaigns using multiple social media platforms.  These campaigns will certainly continue to raise the bar for fellow professionals and consultants in this area to always think of the next big thing.  In this case, Ford has certainly raised the bar for other brands to follow through on.

Hope you all are having a great day!

Best Wishes,

Karen