The Brief

Ford is considered a solid, but unexciting brand. With the launch of the high performance Fiesta ST we wanted to inject some excitement into the brand and reach out to a cooler, younger and more social group. We knew our audience love getting together and heading out for a bite to eat at the hip restaurants and food trucks around the city. We wanted to make the Fiesta ST part of this scene without being invasive and uncool.

Creative Execution

The sauce was distributed around the top restaurants in Auckland, joining the condiments on offer on the tables. Specially constructed transit posters appeared in the vicinity of these restaurants, telling people to visit the Ford Facebook page for a chance to win a bottle for home, and other print executions supported this, featuring the stylized ST sauce bottle label that promoted the car. We simultaneously launched a promotion on the Ford NZ Facebook page, with a short video detailing the process and a simple giveaway competition with the sauce as a prize.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We collaborated with a gourmet chili sauce maker to translate the Fiesta ST’s scorching performance into a sauce our audience could enjoy when dining out and at home with friends. The specially labeled bottles featured an introduction of the car and a url for more information. We created a run of 3000 bottles of hot sauce with a unique recipe and colour that matched the Fiesta ST.

Results

From the chefs at the restaurants to the people eating in them, the ST Sauce was a success and became a talking point both at mealtime and online. Better yet the launch of the Fiesta ST was a success, with two thirds of the vehicles available sold in the first two months. We also saw growth in our Facebook fans of 5% in the first fortnight of the campaign.