Ford

Information about the company

Ford Otomotiv Sanayi A.Ş. (Ford Automotive Industry) is an automotive manufacturing company based in Turkey that is equally owned by Ford Motor Company and Koç Holding. It was established in its current form in 1977, with original relations dating back to 1928. It currently operates five facilities throughout the country, and is headquartered in Gölcük, with a second location in İnönü.

Commercial approach

Ford of Europe was keen to explore new ways to connect with potential car buyers online. Given the increase in YouTube viewership around the world, Ford wanted to create messages that would speak to audiences in the many moments they turn to YouTube throughout the day. Ford’s theory was that if it could serve ads that showed an understanding of the car-buying pain points, it would influence consumers to think more favorably about the brand and lead to more Ford purchases.

Google Ads success story

Ford, its global media agency Global Team Blue (GTB), and Google’s creative think tank for brands and agencies, The ZOO, teamed up to uncover what car buyers care about based on Google and YouTube search data. Julian Watt, chief creative officer at GTB, said, “The starting point here was to listen to what our audience is watching. Let’s see what they’re searching for and let that inform the creative process.”

One of the main sentiments they identified was that customers don’t feel confident when they visit the dealership. “People are quite apprehensive about dealers. They feel they lose control the minute they enter the dealership,” continued Watt.

From this insight, creative direction for the YouTube TrueView campaign was born: “You can’t skip this dealership in five seconds.”

Results

- All five ads had best-in-class (top 25% of peer set) results for ad recall
- Three out of five ads showed significant increase in brand consideration