| Title | PARKIES |
| Brand | FORD |
| Product / Service | FOCUS |
| Category | A01. Event & Field Marketing |
| 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 |
| Harriet Butler | Jwt | Account Manager |
| Bree Meyers | Jwt | Senior Account Manager |
| Aaron Taylor | Jwt | Group Account Director |
| Rose Steele | Jwt | Account Executive |
| 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 | Creative Director |
The strategy of the campaign was to increase Ford’s ‘smart’ credentials in the small car category 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 small car buyers. A key objective from Ford was to engage audiences through earned media.
New Zealand’s media is dominated by a national obsession with sport. So, we took the tension inherent in parallel parking and created a new sport: the Parker of the Year Championships (The Parkies). Complete with umpires, bumper judges, a purpose built arena and the nation’s leading sports commentator, competitors took on the Hands-free Ford Focus in the chance to become the nation’s Parker of the Year. We wanted a response from the mainstream news media. They reported on the event, and ended up competing, comparing and umpiring. Motoring reporters and Rugby commentators were at the centre of the action.
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. The Ford Focus is now best known car for hands free parking.* *Perceptive Omnibus Research
The creative execution provided a media spectacle in which Ford’s story of the hands free parking technology could naturally appear. 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. An important aspect of this for the Ford brand is to make technology accessible: the populist nature of this new sport had instant broad appeal.