This article first appeared in Event Marketer.
Ford Raptor owners are an activate and engaged audience. In fact, when the brand decided the group needed an in-person community landing point to talk all things high-performance vehicles, via the inaugural ticketed Raptor Rally in September, some 300 vehicle owners registered for an action-packed day of driving experiences, workshops, exclusive Ford announcements, and networking. And different from other Ford-hosted excursions, attendees were asked to show up in their own Raptors, so that they could experience, in the comfort of their own seats, the Raptor line’s capabilities as they traversed Baja hot laps, rock crawls, and jumps.
The experience, held at Ford Performance Racing School in Fairfield, UT, convened owners of the F-150 Raptor, Bronco Raptor and Ranger Raptor (which was just introduced in North America earlier this year). Vehicle owners drove from as far as Maine, Florida, and parts of Canada, to attend, according to Ford. Partnerships with brands like BF Goodrich and Traeger helped supplement the on-site experience, while collabs with off-road ambassadors like Vaughn Gittin Jr. drove buzz on social in the lead-up.
Focusing on early hand-raisers
An experience like this would normally cater to the media or automotive influencers, giving them the opportunity to create exclusive reviews and content for YouTube and elsewhere for consumers. But in targeting owners, the team took a staged approach to the communications to generate maximum engagement.
“We announced that we were going to be doing this event, where it was going to be, the date, and then we didn’t really share too much more, but people could sign up to express interest,” says Dawn McKenzie, communications manager for Ford Trucks. “Those were our early hand raisers and were the people that were most likely to sign up and attend, so we were able to further communicate with them and target them with more than the general Ford community.”
Treating consumers as content creators
Some of the attendees were influencers in their own right with large followings, and they helped generate some 1.6 million in combined organic views on their social content from the experience. The team overall clocked 150 social posts 73,000 social engagements.
“We wanted to do a measurement report afterward just to see what the online conversation was after the event from the content that people had created, and we ended up pushing it out farther than a week because even a week after the event, people were still posting new content that was getting a lot of engagement,” McKenzie says. “We considered that a big win-win.”
Have a feedback mechanism
Ford product experts were on-hand to interact with consumers for educational moments and the drives, including a chief engineer of performance, and the team that designed the Raptors. The attendees could give their feedback in terms of what they like about their vehicle or what they would like to see directly to the experts.
Have partners enhance the on-site experience
Among partners on-site was Traeger, whose teams provided and cooked dinner for all of the attendees. Partner FOX Shocks co-hosted a workshop. BF Goodrich provided tire services and attendees could actually get a discount on new tires and get them swapped out right on site.
But beyond corporate partners, the brand recognised the entire enthusiast ecosystem and set aside spaces for Raptor Run Clubs, which are driver-led, owners’ clubs around the country. As key partners, they helped spread the word about the event and then, on-site, were able to recruit new members and drive additional influence.
Offer exclusive event merchandise
To help position Ford and Ford Performance as a lifestyle brand, the team produced exclusive merch that consumers could only get at the Raptor Rally. It turned out to be the Ford merchandise team’s most successful event.
“Even if the drivers went to an event sponsored by somebody else, they’re not going be able to get exclusive Ford news or meet and mingle with the Ford engineering and design and marketing brand team, get the exclusive merchandise that’s from Ford, get access to some of the vendors,” McKenzie says. “So, it was all about creating a unique opportunity that we were able to provide, and that we learned so much from, too.”
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October 08, 2024