Ford India, known for its out-of-the-box innovative marketing, is back to set a new benchmark with the launch campaign of Ford Freestyle Flair Edition.
Complementing the exciting character of India’s most-loved Compact-Utility-Vehicle (CUV), Ford has adopted a unique, fun, and quirky way to market Freestyle Flair by influencing search behaviour on Google and through exclusive Freestyle playlists on India’s largest streaming platform, JioSaavn.
Besides being ‘Truly Freestyle’, the marketing approach is deeply rooted in audience insights and is designed to deepen customer engagement & purchase consideration.
Did You Mean Freestyle?
Search continues to be a key driver for car purchase and research. 96% of car buyers in India use search during the purchase journey and 68% of car buyers start their research without an idea of the car they want to buy.
In the process of search, the user often accepts recommendations under ‘Did you mean this?’ from Google, whenever there is a misspelling.
Learning from this consumer insight to accept Google’s suggestion as to the better choice, Ford team identified the most common search terms including some from the competition.
On entering these keywords, Google search engine has been tuned to share key product attributes of Ford Freestyle in a fun memorable manner, making searching for a new car fun and educating experience. The experience also aims to help the user in making well-meaning and informed choices, by placing Freestyle in the mix.
Freestyle Mix
With its top-of-the-line Freestyle Flair edition, Ford aims to welcome the festive season in India and gives consumers a reason to rejoice. And festivities without music are unimaginable in India.
To make car buying as easy as a song, the unique marketing efforts by Ford also include a one-of-its-kind partnership with JioSaavn, India’s largest music streaming platform for an exclusive Freestyle Channel.
With a playlist for every kind of mood & drive, the Freestyle channel on JioSaavn will have it all covered. The eight playlists presently live on the Freestyle Channel include:
- Freestyle Woofer Beats: Songs that make you live life like a party
2. Freestyle Romantic Drives: Songs when two is company
3. Freestyle City Buzz: Songs that help you wade through the traffic
4. Freestyle Road Trips: Songs to fuel up your mood for every journey – short or long
5. Freestyle Josh: Songs to keep up the josh and make every day a walk in the park
6. Freestyle Bollywood Beats: Songs to make you groove, desi style.
7. Freestyle Ishq Humsafar: Timeless classics close to your heart
8. Freestyle Safarnama: Songs on the road by the road for the road
On booking any variant of Ford Freestyle before February 2021, customers will avail a one-year premium subscription to ad-free music on JioSaavn. Apart from the exclusive Freestyle Channel, the partnership with JioSaavn also comes alive on social media with:
- Popular on Freestyle Channel: A poll on JioSaavn Twitter handle, crowd-sourcing songs and giving people a chance to get their favourite songs added to the channel
- Instagram Stories on Music Personalities: A series of stories on Instagram focused on the personalities of people who will stream the playlists on the Freestyle Channel on JioSaavn
- Playlist Feature on Facebook: Series showcasing all the eight playlists available on the Freestyle Channel along with the swipe up links to each playlist
Shedding light on the approach, Kaushik Prasad, GM Marketing, Ford India, “True to the character of the brand Freestyle, the Flair does not just stop at the product but is visible in our engagements with Google Search and JioSaavn.”
Ford Freestyle, India’s most-loved CUV, was launched in 2018 with the proposition ‘Josh Hai Dil Main’, celebrating the passion to follow one’s heart, for a regret-free life. The new Flair edition is the latest in this extremely successful Freestyle portfolio, that aims to meet aspirations of young, new age ‘Optimist’ customers- who are progressive, fiercely independent, and love taking chances to lead a regret-free life.
Introduced recently at an attractive, introductory price of INR 7,69,000 for petrol variant while at INR 8,79,000 for the diesel engine powered variants, Ford Freestyle Flair is available in three colours — White Gold, Diamond White and Smoke Grey.
So do let us know what you think of this innovative and personalised marketing approach by Ford India. You can share your thoughts in the comment section below or tweet to us @theunbiasedblog
