This article first appeared in Campaign Middle East. In a joint interview with Rasha Ghanem, Director of Public Affairs and Communications, Ford Middle East, our Executive Creative Director, Jason Rodbard from our Dubai studio, discusses the brand goals for the campaign, how it was rolled out, the influencers involved, and the success metrics for the campaign.
This November, Ford Middle East revealed the strategy and rollout of its ‘Beyond the Blue Oval’ marketing communications campaign, which included the execution of a social media campaign complementing traditional media outreach designed to offer consumers a deep, immersive dive into the Ford brand DNA.
The campaign, which incorporated stories, live coverage, reels and thousands of posts, also included collaborations with tier-one business, lifestyle and automotive content creators, who generated authentic and engaging content.
Ford Middle East brand objectives for the Beyond the Blue Oval campaign
Revealing details on the initial brand mandate for the immersive campaign, Jason said, “Ford Middle East’s brief called for an experience that immersed guests deep into the Ford brand DNA and gave them the opportunity to experience Ford’s distinctive, vibrant products, technologies, and experiences. They wanted an experience that helped showcase their shift towards a younger more millennial-focused audience as well as building brand advocacy among their audiences.”
This was brought to life through an integrated marcomms campaign in order to meet the ‘ultimate goal to celebrate Ford’s legacy of achievements, reaffirm its commitment to the Middle East region, foster collaboration with partners and stakeholders, and envision Ford’s electrified future.’
Commenting on the rollout, Rasha said, “Our established network of media partners and content creators – also known as ‘Friends of Ford’ – was key to promoting our messages. Through a strategically developed editorial calendar, we leveraged this extensive network to ensure consistent and impactful storytelling. This resulted in a series of high-profile feature stories, press releases, interviews, and digital content that translated Ford’s key messages around: performance, innovation, and passion.”
Influencer and content creator collaborations
Beyond the traditional media outreach, Ford Middle East also provided attendees with immersive experiences and partnered with content creators and influencers to further fuel the campaign, but did so ‘a little differently’.
Rasha explained, “Our approach to influencer engagement goes beyond traditional transactional relationships. We view influencers as a friend of the brand and a mutual partner, each with a unique voice and a dedicated audience they authentically connect with. We prioritise cultivating genuine, long-term relationships with these individuals, referring to them as ‘Friends of Ford’. This fosters a strong sense of community, evident in the quality and enthusiasm reflected in their content and testimonials.”
The ‘Friends of Ford” approach is built on mutual respect and trust. It aims to empower creators to develop authentic content that resonates with their followers, resulting in organic and impactful storytelling that significantly amplifies Ford Middle East’s campaign messaging, including the successful Beyond the Blue Oval campaign.
“This strategy has yielded exceptional results,” Rasha added. “It has generated hundreds of earned pieces of content, including both social media stories and posts, from top-tier automotive and lifestyle influencers such as The Rahal, Suzan Alsadi, Musaab Shashaa, Eissa Al-Habib, Saudi Stig, Jaber Al-Malki, Charlie Cooksey, and many more. Their genuine enthusiasm for the Ford brand translates into compelling content that effectively reaches and engages a diverse audience in an authentic, rather than prescribed manner.”
Performance and success metrics of the Ford Middle East campaign
Pivoting the conversation to the ‘exceptional results’, Campaign Middle East asked Ford’s Rasha Ghanem about how success metrics were defined for the immersive experiences as well as the wider marketing campaign in terms of brand and business goals.
“From the outset, we established a comprehensive measurement framework to track success across all stages: awareness, knowledge, consideration, and action. We set specific quantitative and qualitative metrics to provide clear benchmarks for evaluation – and I’m delighted to say that the results exceeded expectations across the board,” Rasha said.
She added, “Our initial projections were exceeded in several key areas. We welcomed over 500 stakeholders – from content creators, journalists to distributor partners and Ford Middle East team members – demonstrating strong interest in the event. We also projected 300 social media posts and stories, yet the actual output surpassed 450, indicating significant organic engagement.”
Ford Middle East has achieved 100 per cent positive sentiment across all coverage and testimonials, the brand revealed, exceeding its target and highlighting the overwhelmingly positive reception of the initiative.
Ghaem also shared the below results for the Beyond the Blue Oval campaign:
- Editorial Coverage: 585 pieces of coverage secured within the planned storytelling calendar.
- Social Media Engagement: More than 540 social media posts from attending media, guests, fans, and fan clubs across different platforms.
- Audience reach: 220 million
- Estimated Views: 89 million
- ↑131.5 per cent increase in Ford Middle East (FME) Instagram account reach compared to the previous period (October 31 to November 5)
- ↑43.1 per cent increase in FME Instagram account follows compared to the previous period (October 31 to November 5)
- ↑56.8 per cent increase in FME Instagram account engagements compared to the previous period (October 31 to November 5)
- Social media collaboration: More than 780,000 views on Instagram; 15,000 interactions on Instagram; USD 250,000 added value in free collaborations generated.
“These results demonstrate the effectiveness of our integrated and collaborative communications strategy in driving awareness, building positive sentiment, and ultimately contributing to Ford’s success in the Middle East,” Rasha concluded.
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