Cut the bull. It’s 2009.

For a company that’s in dire straits, Ford (in the US) seem be to extravagantly spending time and money on engaging niche markets with mobile marketing campaigns.
Of late, both the Ford Ka, focused on the youth market, and the Ford Flex, a monstrosity of a truck in the Dallas, Texas region (not surprisingly) have been ceremoniously praised for its mobile campaign initiatives.
The Ford Ka campaign in particular struck my interest. Direct mail packs were distributed among bars, music festivals, colleges and what not. Contained in these packs were material with QR codes (similar to a bar code which can be scanned with your mobile phone’s camera) and the objective of the campaign is for people to “Find it” (As in find the Ka obviously). Hence, once you spot one of these QR codes, by browsing your phone over the code, a picture of the Ford Ka will appear on your screen and an application will direct you to the Go Find It website.
Now, upon landing on this website, there are a bunch of things for the user to do. Things like customizing a Ford Ka, watching videos, placing your latest finds on the map for others in your region to see and a whole plethora of uhm…well, cool stuff.
There are a number of things I have derived from scanning this campaign:
1. The new Ford Ka is a very sexy little car.2. The campaign certainly seems to be a lot of fun. (If this is the kind of thing that you enjoy doing)3. Ford has gone out of their way to make this campaign what it is…nifty.
But nifty isn’t good enough for me. And I wouldn’t recommend nifty for 2009 either. ‘cause it’s recession time baby and companies aren’t supposed to a) have the money for these types of campaigns, b) spend these types of money when their financials read like a college dropout’s report card and c)have the audacity to spend these moneys while their Chief Executives are begging at the feet of local government for bailout money.
One would imagine, and this is rich even coming from me, that the main focus of these mobile campaigns should be geared either toward sales, value added services (which are monetized rather well these days) or if you’re really smart, a combination of the two.
Two things may happen though: One – the guys over at Branding Unbound will provide me with the stats of these campaigns, and the success of it will shock my socks off.
Or two – they might argue that the monetary ROI is irrelevant to the brand equity obtained through these campaigns.
One would reckon that a piece of pie on my face is not what you’d call a desired ending to this engagement. But…regardless, yes this is a bold statement, but regardless of the outcome of these two campaigns, I will go on my knees and beg of you (the businesses out there in these trying times) to keep it simple.
Keep it focused. Keep it niche. Keep it cost effective. Keep it convenience centric. Keep it easy for people to react – sales- or otherwise. Customers love outrageously cool things, but they also appreciate an honest, direct approach, especially so if they’re current customers of a company that’s facing extinction.

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