For my final chapter in my Ford/NAIAS adventure I want to write about Ford’s marketing efforts directed specifically at this so called “Community Influencer” group.   Besides focusing on the traditional auto industry press, they flew out something like 150 bloggers and tweeters, put them up in a hotel, bussed them around Detroit… and then crossed their fingers, hoping that they would say nice things about the Ford Fusion.  A risky experiment to be sure… did it pay off for them?

The face of this event was Scott Monty, a blogger and tweeter who runs Fords social media program, (as well as a personal site about Sherlock Holmes).  He wore a tie, which made him stand out amongst his guests. The influencers themselves were a hugely diverse group: I spent time talking to folks who run gadget websites, farms, parenting advice sites, eco/green sites, as well as one of the most popular photographers on Google+. I don’t know who made the roster selection- if it was the Ford folks or the reps from Ogilvy, but from my perspective it seemed like they had done their homework, with one notable exception.

Unsurprisingly, a number of folks in attendance were experts in the auto industry.  They spoke to me about the drive trains of one car and the designer of another and how one model is different in the european market versus the south american market.  In other words, the kind of stuff I know absolutely nothing about.  A number of attendees were active users of Ford Social, a site which appears to be growing a community of some weight since a number of these people knew each other and seemed genuinely excited to meet each other.

Regular readers will remember that I went to final shuttle launch last summer.  At this event, NASA did something very similar by bringing a bus load of tweeters out to the event.  Those folks were chosen more or less at random (well, besides Seth Green) from people willing to tweet a hashtag. Ford instead invited people with a diverse set of expertise.

At Kennedy Space Center I was with “The Journalists” most of the time.  And they were largely pretty derogatory of tweeters.  Personally, I’ve always felt that I exist within a nether region  between the two groups, hopefully able to understand both groups.  Journalists feel they are specially qualified to tell stories in a way that mere mortals can’t.  Most tweeters just like to share their viewpoints. But neither group has a monopoly on the truth.  When the tweeter’s bus went out to see the gantry retraction instead of the press photographers, I understood their frustration.  The pros are people who’s livelihood depends on “getting the story”.  A really good picture might put food on their table.  And in many (but not all!) cases they are skilled and experienced far beyond the average tweeter or blogger.

The tweeters mostly were just along for the thrill and experience of it all.  When they were given special treatment ahead of the professional journalists, the hostility was a bit inevitable.  It was real… it was good natured.  Mostly.  But I could tell a few reporters were honestly upset.  I think the message out of KSC benefitted by having multiple viewpoints of the event: the space program benefits us all, and traditional media can be a bit jaded sometimes.

To Ford’s credit, they were blatant in their expectations: we were to write our own opinions.  To share our own words.  We weren’t here to regurgitate press releases.  There was ZERO requirements placed on us.  Sure, they bussed us down to Cobo Hall, and brought us in to the Ford Fusion launch announcement, but we were free to say whatever we wanted… be it about a new Corvette, BMW, or Fusion.  The keyword I heard from multiple executives was ‘Authenticity’.

The real measure of success will be revealed in how Ford acts next year: Will they invite back someone who thinks the Fusion sucks?  Personally, I don’t have a useful opinion on the car: I won’t buy one, but thats because my family needs either something more mini-van sized as a primary car (of which there were exactly zero at NAIAS) or a smaller commuter car for individual or 2 person city trips. If my 10 year old car lasts long enough for my kids to be out of child car seats, my next car could be a Mustang. I’ll certainly give one a test drive when the time comes.

Scott Monty spoke monday evening proclaiming that the Community Influencer Event had been a great success.  He spoke of the volume of tweets about Ford and the Fusion in particularly in glowing terms.  Large real numbers and huge penetrating percentages that hopefully for him will justify the huge amount of cash Ford had to invest to get this group to Detroit, and accommodate them for 2 days.  Given the environment, he would never tell us that this whole social media experiment failed, but he had numbers that he was excited about.  Numbers that indicate success… They brought in a large number of independent voices, and turned them loose.

As for the future, I know smaller organizations have done similar events, although I can’t imagine to many companies have done it on this scale.  150 people and 2 days is crazy ambitious.  I think Ford will be mostly pleased with the output of the people present.  They reported on Ford, but also on the whole NAIAS experience, providing viewpoints on many cars.  And Ford was able to give a captive audience a lot of their own spin.  And to their credit, they treated everyone nicer and more professionally than we deserved!

But it’s tricky: while a traditional reporter is paid by a magazine or newspaper, they need the access provided by vendors to successfully tell good stories that an audience wants to read.  Biting the hand that feeds you is a great way to get locked outside of the big events.  Most of these bloggers will never come back to NAIAS.  They will never again ask for ANYTHING from Ford.  They have no motivation whatsoever to tell anything but their honest viewpoints, good or bad.  But others might like the idea of coming back in 2013 for some more fancy cheese and another couple glasses of red wine.  They might be tempted to pucker up.  But is that really any different than most automotive magazines?

As one chap put it… when was the last time you read BAD review of a car in a major magazine?  The industry largely has them in their pocket already.  So is this merely an effort by Ford to shape the message of the latest stream of information?

Of course it is!  And I don’t think I can fault them for it.  They took a huge risk and at great expense they gave a lot of people access to places others wouldn’t have (NAIAS on a day when only press is allowed inside the building, and then later various Ford design facilities) and told us in no uncertain terms to write whatever we wanted.  And I hope that the bloggers in attendance took that to heart and shared their honest opinions, good or bad.   I’ve read the opinions of a few of them and they seem to be mostly positive, but I hope that the folks with negative opinions shared those as well.  An experiment like this only works if the good and bad comes to the surface.  Else what we’re stuck with is no different than what we have now: a timid auto press afraid to bad mouth a car for fear that they won’t be able to review next years model.

What it boils down to for me is simply “Is this Better?”  What I keep coming back to is that more voices are always better, if only because the chance for disruption is higher. You need diversity to get dissenting opinions, and it’s really only by public airing of disagreement that the internet as a whole gets to a truth.  So  given a choice between 15 reporters or 150 bloggers, I’m going to always choose the latter.  And Ford deserves praise for taking a chance like this.  They are a huge institution, and this is a gutsy move on their part. If we see Chevy and BMW doing the same thing next year, we’ll know for sure that it worked.  I wouldn’t be surprised.

Finally, one last thanks to Ford, Scott Monty, the Henry Ford Museum, and countless hardworking folks at NAIAS.  At every step, a HUGE group was treated like valued individuals. I saw numerous small moments of human decency and class that I could only describe as ‘above and beyond’ You guys deserve the pats on the back and I hope you are all rewarded.