Ford's $80 million marketing blitz for the Edge: Will it work?
Ford will be spending $80 million dollars on a marketing blitz to educate the public on its new Edge CUV. Now we all know how important the Edge is to Ford's fortunes, so a monster marketing budget isn't a big surprise. A large portion of the monies will go to MSN.com, which is setting up the URL ideasfromtheedge.msn.com to host a website community that alerts visitors to events in 25 cities that will promote the Edge. In the deal, MSN.com is reportedly guaranteeing an undisclosed amount of traffic to the site, which it will likely generate through ads and editorials on its home page and MSN Autos.
More after the jump.
[Source: AdAge]
Ford has also secured the help of someone named Kelis, which various sources tell us is a hip-hop singer (man, we gotta keep up on our MTV/VH1). Kelis truly sold out in the most brazen way by penning a song just for Ford's CUV called "Push it to the Edge," which no doubt will be up for a Grammy, we're sure. She'll also be in magazine ads, radio spots and various Edge sweepstakes. As my buddy from college used to say, "She's not selling out, she's buying in." Either way, Kelis will be the point person for the Edge marketing campaign from here on out. (BTW - I wrote this entire post before realizing Kelis is a woman).
Ford deserves credit for diving head first into the murky waters of internet advertising, and the Edge campaign will be its deepest foray yet. The Blue Oval has even done its fair share of viral video with the wrecked GT500 video. For $80 million, however, the Edge's marketing campaign doesn't appear to offer anything new. Sure, when you throw around that kind of cash, you're guaranteed to get a certain number of eyeballs, but JWT, Ford's ad agency in Detroit, could've come up with something more original than a MySpace page ripoff and a hip-hop freshman for that kind of money.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Scott Preacher 3:08PM (12/19/2006)
If the vehicle sux, no amount of marketing or advertising will save it. At least it looks better than the Aztek......
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SOhp101 3:11PM (12/19/2006)
When a auto company has to use celebrity endorsements to promote a car, that's when you know the car probably isn't very good. Great car advertisements focus on the car and only the car, with only a few exceptions (none of which I can think of).
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RC 3:13PM (12/19/2006)
This seems to be a winner to me. even though some people complain about
no 3rd row - no one uses it anyway, get a minivan if you need that much room.
no autostick option - who actually uses this feature in their cars?
My parents own a Nissan Murano and have never had a use for a 3rd row, and they have never used the autostick feature.
So if thats the only faults these so called "experts" at car magazines can find, then ford should sell plenty of these.
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M. 3:15PM (12/19/2006)
Quite nice, but a bit bulky. Do the Fusion and Edge sell well on your side of the ocean?
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Pitcrew 3:15PM (12/19/2006)
Ford should save the money and reapply it to making the Edge look better!
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hawaiian Hippie 3:16PM (12/19/2006)
80 million. Ford claims they lose 1000 per vehicle. However, lets say Edge is a money maker. Lets say it makes a whopping 2,000 pure profit per car for Ford. At 80,000,000, this means 40,000 Ford Edge are practically write offs. a whopping 40 thousand Edges are simply given away at no loss, no profit, to help sell the other Edges.
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Spalind 3:21PM (12/19/2006)
Horrid...Horrid marketing campaign...Does anyone that Ford wants to buy this vehicle know who Kelis is?? Does looking at a sub-25 year old screaming at the camera and looking unrecognizable (even if you do know who she is) due to giant sunglasses make you want to buy a car?? Nope...Gaaaaaawoooosh!! Thats the sound of $80 million being flushed down the drain....
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RC 3:19PM (12/19/2006)
#2 youre basing your opinion on the car because ford uses a celebrity? All brands have used a celebrity at some point. Doesnt GM use famous musicians? Your post is just another example of typical american ignorance about american cars.
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jayson 3:20PM (12/19/2006)
GM will spend 100 million total on its trucks. The trucks have a yearly sale of about 1 million. Toyota said they will spend 7 million on ads on the camry. The camry sells 400,000 plus. Even Chrysler said they would spend 10 million on the sebring. They need to because they are desperate. Anyways the sebring is supposed to sell around 200,000 per year. Then Ford wants to spend 80 million on a vehicle that has a goal of 80,000 - 100,000 a year? What bunch of idiots. First, too much money. Second, if the product is good, it needs no advertizing.
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fordman 3:25PM (12/19/2006)
I belive ford has lost it. #6, you are correct. 40,000 vehicles given away to sell the other 40,000. I really think ford has turned into a healthcare corporation and an advertizing corporation. They stopped building cars long ago.
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RC 3:29PM (12/19/2006)
#10 you are correct aobut the healthcare, I personally believe that unions are outdated and dragging down all of detroit.
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maxconfus 6:49PM (12/19/2006)
Kelis-
Ford is hoping that the Edge's/Kelis' milkshake brings all the boys to the curb... Sorry, I could not resist.
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ron 3:44PM (12/19/2006)
I will have you know that Chevy spent like $150 million on just the Silverado alone!!!!
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smokeydog001 3:45PM (12/19/2006)
Hiring some baboon farting hip hop ho to sell an ugly, uninspiring car just might work for Ford. Monty Python couldn't have dreamed this up!
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John 3:56PM (12/19/2006)
I like the car, but if ever a vehicle needed more wheel and less tire, this is it. It reminds me of those big-wheeled beach/water bicycles with that thick rubber on it.
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John 4:42PM (12/19/2006)
Looks like $80 million wasted to me. Thats a lot to pay. If you're going to pay that much, you ought to get one hell of an ad campaign that will really stick in people's minds. I can see spending big coin on an ad compaign like the Honda "Dream" or "Cog" ads. Those ads are works of art and promote the entire company, not just one line of vehicles. Ford has done good ads in the past...like the new Mustang "Field of Dreams" ad. Thats that kind of product they should get when spending big coin.
So the person who looks like they are about to catch a grape with their mouth is famous? Could have fooled me, I thought it was just some schmoe. Does the market who knows who this person is the type of people who can afford and will want this vehicle? To me, the Edge would be aimed at smaller families tired of minivans or Expedition owners looking to downsize. Do these people listen to rap and fart around on MSN all day, let alone pay attention to annoying banner ads? And these ads will do nothing to get people out of their RAV-4s or CR-Vs into an Edge.
Bold moves? Maybe silly moves is more like it.
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JarryHames 6:56PM (12/19/2006)
I sure hope that this car lives up to the hype! I'm so sick of Ford and this Edge CUV. How many CUV/SUVs does it take for them to get a hit? Does anyone remember the Freestyle?
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M3 5:07PM (12/19/2006)
Heavy piece of junk. The only thing nice on this car is the sunroof. In ten years they will either be in junkyards or collecting dust in used car dealerships. We Americans (actually Mexicans and Candians) can't build cars. We should stick to money management.
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theo 5:26AM (12/20/2006)
You all obviously didn't read the f'in article, as it says:
"Separately, Ford partnered with singer Kelis for the Edge's integrated urban-marketing effort, arriving on radio tomorrow."
It's using Kelis to market to a different demographic. And yes, a significant part of the population DO know who Kelis is, but aren't going to buy the vehicle simply because she's singing a song.
I didn't see Ford's sales spike after Taylor Hicks did a commercial...
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Kyle A. Miller 5:22PM (12/19/2006)
An $80 million ad campaign mostly focused on an Microsoft MSN web site. What does $80 million buy? A web site compatible with Internet Explorer only! All that money and the web site developers can't write a standards compliant web site compatible with all browsers?
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