| Title | PARKIES |
| Brand | FORD |
| Product / Service | FOCUS |
| Category | A06. Best Use of Special Events And Stunt/Live Advertising |
| Entrant | JWT Auckland, NEW ZEALAND |
| Entrant Company | JWT Auckland, NEW ZEALAND |
| Advertising Agency | JWT Auckland, NEW ZEALAND |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Nick Wrigley | Jwt | Media Planner |
| Suzanne Bull | Jwt | Media Director |
| Darryn Warhaft | Jwt | Creative Services Director |
| Rose Steele | Jwt | Account Executive |
| Harriet Butler | Jwt | Account Manager |
| Bree Meyers | Jwt | Senior Account Manager |
| Aaron Taylor | Jwt | Group Account Director |
| Glenn Chapman | Jwt | Designer |
| Ruwani Perera | Bullet Pr | Pr Co-Ordinator |
| Paul Gunn | Gunn Communications | Event Manager |
| Robin Rawstorne | Rawstorne Design | Production Designer |
| Rod Prosser | Jwt | Art Director |
| Sam Dickson | Jwt | Copywriter |
| Jacqueline Smart | Jwt | Planning Director |
| Simon Lendrum | Jwt | Managing Director |
| Cleve Cameron | Jwt | Executive Creative Director |
Earned media from the Parkies event reached over 1.6 million people, which is over 1 in 3 New Zealanders – an excellent result for the $120,000 investment in the event. Media coverage included a 5 minute feature story on the hands free parking technology of the Ford Focus on the nation’s top rating prime time current affairs show. Not to mention page two stories in the nation’s leading Sunday newspapers. Importantly, the Ford Focus is now best known car for hands free parking.* *Perceptive Omnibus Research
The Parker of the Year Championships (the Parkies) is a creative media idea – where the two disciplines come together. The Parkies provided a media spectacle for the story of Ford’s hands-free parking technology to naturally appear in. The tension and drama of the sports arena had instant entertainment value as sports crazed audiences in NZ naturally gravitated to the rugby style sports action and commentary. The spectacle of the live sports event naturally attracted the news media. We selectively invited key news media personalities to be involved in the event: the nations leading sports commentator called the action, motoring journalists volunteered as umpires, celebrity All Blacks and Netball players competed and reported. We encouraged these key media influencers to become our channels to reach wider New Zealand. And, it worked a treat.
The strategy of the campaign was to increase Ford’s ‘smart’ credentials by showcasing the hands-free parking technology of the Ford Focus. The target audience were Aucklanders and wider New Zealand. In downtown Auckland parking is a real issue – this cultural backdrop provided a great springboard to reach wider New Zealand new car buyers. A key objective from Ford was to engage audiences through earned media. Our insight was that in a nation where the news media is dominated by the national obsession with sport, the trick is to be sports news. So we used the tension inherent in parallel parking to create a new sport – The Parkies.