Ford (and other) TV Ads

[Crazy Dazz]

I'll say upfront that whilst I understand some of the more complicated marketing strategies, I am NO advertising guru. But I like what I like, and in all honesty I think my tastes are pretty mainstream. Ads that I LOVE go on to become part of popular culture, ads I hate disappear quickly. (ie I assume that whilst I'm not an expert, I simply like the same things most people do.)

I watch a LOT of TV. Way, WAY, too much, but that's another story. If there's been an ad on TV, chances are I've seen it.

In an industry where brand awareness is KING, I think the Jeep campaign has been brilliant. They've taken what was a negative ("you bought a WHAT? WTF did you do that for?") and parleyed into not only brand awareness, but the ultimate goal for all advertising, popular culturisation.
In contrast, Toyota's attempt to do the same thing with the Camry, simply emphasised the point that only those men with no further use for their testes would buy one. Furthermore, emasculating those who HAVE bought your product is not a great way to develop brand loyalty.

Holden running ads to point out to their customers (most of whom would have been oblivious) that they ("The Australian Car Company") were abandoning Australia, was probably the lowest point of recent advertising.

I'm well aware of all the for & against arguments for advertising. Personally I turn off when Commode ads come on, yet I can still recall them and they seem to work. Despite all the rhetoric about people not buying large RWD sedans, the Commode remains one of Australia's top sellers.
I'm not suggesting that better advertising would have SAVED the Falcon, but really, what attempts have they made? The ecoLPI is a fekkin brilliant innovation, I reckon every non-v8 Falcon should be one, yet I have never seen a single ad. (Just read all the anti-LPG rhetoric in this forum to understand the potential of decent LPG advertising.)
The ONLY Falcon ad I can recall seeing in recent memory was for the turbo 4. An extremely funny, yet completely pointless ad for a really stupid product. Imagine if FA had taken the money they wasted on developing & implementing the 4, and spent it instead on marketing the Falcon.

The Fiesta is a brilliant small car. Personally I think it (and it's fraternal twin the Mazda 2) are streets ahead of cars like the Yaris, Micra, and Getz. Yet FA's best effort was some lamentable hip-hop inspired fandango some time back.

The epic shiteness of Ford's Australian Advertising/ Marketing can best be summed up by the Focus: When they ran decent ads, it was one of our top sellers. It remains one of the top selling cars in the world, its cousin is the number one seller in Australia, it wins multiple awards, yet can't even crack the top ten. I THINK I've seen a focus ad, its some annoying nonsense about integrating your bluetooth and Karaoke, I don't actually recall the car being advertised, which is kinda my point.

And here's another point: With the ongoing (and soon to be total) demise of the Falcon, Ford's candidate for the Medium~Large segment will be the Mondeo/ Focus. Globally this is an epic car, with a mouth-watering array of engines. Considering it shares its platform (and therefore many components) with the new Explorer, Flex, & Edge, the potential for "localised" versions and parts support is significant. Yet when was the last time FA made any attempt to advertise it???