10.12.2007

Not Your Father's Press Release

So it appears that the business world is starting to realize that a press releases doesn't have to simply be a piece of paper or e-mail and a few posed photos.

Ford Motor Company recently announced the 2008 Ford Focus with what might just be the very first Social Media press release. In addition to the traditional text release:

their site (yes a website!) also included an rss feed:

a Flickr photo gallery:A YouTube gallery with an embeddable player:

Suggested Tags:
And much, much more.

I think it is worth noting that this is FORD, not the most forward-thinking company out there and one that has been struggling financially. To me this effort indicates their recognition that there is now more then one way to get your message out; that you need to maximize your distribution; that what worked before won't work now. Is it selling more cars? I don't know. But it does have people talking.

So what do you think?

1 comment:

Kathy Schwartz said...

Ford is actually not new to leveraging networks online to push new products: FordBoldMoves.com got coverage in Business Week and the introduction of the Edge SUV had a decidedly multi-pronged marketing approach including social networking.

Unfortunately, fordboldmoves.com is now an abandoned site as written about here. Apparently, no amount of "cool" online initiatives can make Ford's products cool. The buzz these tools generate falls flat because they don't deliver on it, or at least that's what the numbers would tell us with Ford still struggling financially.

So, while Yoni points out that we should be using all manner of online marketing to push our products I think the larger story here is that if you don't change your DNA that online marketing buzz won't help.