Thirty years ago, movie lovers travelled into the future to visit a time that seemed almost unimaginable: October 21, 2015. The impact of this film on pop culture is undeniable and as the magic date approached, anticipation was high. Ford saw a way to join in the fun of Back To The Future Day by using one of the most beloved icons from the film—The Flux Capacitor—to drive awareness and interest in the Ford Focus and Fiesta nameplates. In addition, we wanted to break through the BTTF day clutter and get people talking about this "new vehicle feature" from Ford. A secondary objective for this campaign was to see if this type of content would drive consumers to participate in lower funnel shopping behaviors e.g. vehicle build and price actions on the Ford.com website.
Because of the overwhelming popularity of BTTF and heavy anticipation of the key date, Ford knew that many brands would attempt to take advantage of the big day. Rather than simply jumping on the trend by slapping on a hashtag or co-opting themes, twisted to fit a brand communication need, we saw opportunity in authentic integration. One that showcased key products but in a way even the most rabid BTTF fan was sure to embrace – and share with everyone.
"Live your 'Back to the Future' dreams with Ford's $1.21M flux capacitor"…
Each vehicle in the Ford lineup has a build & price page, where visitors are able to customize their vehicle, tweak the pricing, etc. This is pretty straightforward territory for the Ford site—conservative, even. So we thought it'd be ripe playing ground for a deadpan delivery of a completely absurd vehicle upgrade: The Flux Capacitor, at the reasonable price of $1.21 million, on the Focus and Fiesta pages.
Playing on the clichés of product demo videos we produced a walk-through video, complete with Ken Burns effect, that showcased the product's time traveling capabilities—plus, its "sleek" design. (We were keen to mimic the exact wear & tear from the film.) To reinforce the gag, we supported the product with extensive bullet points that nodded to the film's plot, plus a healthy dose of disclaimers about the dangers of time travel. And, of course, a "Happy Back to the Future Day" message.
Starting with earned coverage a few days before, Ford's Back to the Future execution was picked up by over 30 outlets across digital and broadcast including Mashable, New York Times, Wired and CNN.
Throughout the live period there were five times the daily average of Build & Price starts for the 2016 Focus and Fiesta with earned media generating three times the daily average. Over the six day flight there were 1.22 times the average daily visits to the Focus and Fiesta vehicle home pages where the faux video was available to view.
With a positive social sentiment across the board on Ford's Flux Capacitor we saw fans particularly excited about the cues from the movie carried out through out the executions.
