Catherine Gao, a student at the University of Pennsylvania and chief development officer of Givology, a non-profit that helps fund education projects through crowdsourced micro payments, has concrete plans for her six-week loan that make use of the car's technology features like the Wi-Fi hotspot.
"We plan to use the Ford Focus on a three-city road trip covering the cities of Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York," Gao said, indicating she plans to piggyback on the publicity Ford is creating for the campaign to promote her cause.
"At each location, we are hoping to launch our '6 Weeks Campaign' by having industry leaders in the education space give a 60 second lecture on various themes related to giving, education, social entrepreneurship, etc.," she said.
"We hope to circulate these videos online and to raise awareness for the issues involving education. To highlight the new Focus features such as the Wi-Fi hotspot, we are planning donor registration drives around the car in these cities as well. We hope to get people on the streets to sign up on the Givology website by hosting these registration drives."
So has the "Start More Than a Car" campaign made a difference to how Lee and Gao view Ford as a company?
"This entire experience has helped to shape my view of Ford as an innovative company that hopes to change its industry through new and green initiatives," Gao said. "The emphasis on 'more than a car' was also very clear in their outreach. ... This has allowed me to see Ford as a company that values connection and integration with society and to put their brand name to good use in promoting wonderful social causes."
So far, Ford has forged positive associations among the influencers chosen to attend their launch event.
Ford's Perspective
Mashable was invited to the test drive event in Madrid, and we spoke to Brock Winger, who works on the global marketing sales and service operations team for Ford, about why the car company incorporated a social good element into their product launch.
"If you look at our values and our mission statement, the company is centered around having a really strong business and great products and trying to always build a better world in the communities that we live in," Winger said. "This is just another way to combine the 'one Ford' mission and the one global car, our first truly global car, with that better world. We're trying to bring people together and improve the communities we live in."
While that may feel like a standard "PR response," early returns indicate that Ford's plan to engage influencers around social good topics of their choosing could pay dividends. Although the ultimate success of the campaign can't be judged -- from a business point of view -- until sales figures are in, there's a lot to appreciate from an engagement perspective.
Before Ford revealed its Global Drive plans, the Ford Focus Facebook Page had around 25,000 "Likes." Today, that figure stands at more than 200,000 -- a dramatic increase in just six months. Likes are an important metric for Ford's marketing department. Further, it appears that many of the finalists who attended the event in Madrid plan to use their influence to promote the car alongside their chosen cause.
So, Will it Work?
We spoke to David Connor, European director of 3BL Media and founder of Coethica to get his take, as a corporate social responsibility expert, on the campaign.
"Ford gives millions of dollars away every year to good causes both directly and through its own community fund. This is tightly managed through a strategic request and application process, so my question is, why give $400,000 away to promote a test drive?" asks Connor.
"Whilst it's heartening to see the company make such a generous donation, especially in tougher times for the motor industry, it does appear to be an extravagant departure from policy from a business perspective. It may be good for the charities involved but I'm not sure about Ford's thinking."
Do you expect to see social good incorporated into more product launches? Will this marketing experiment prove successful? Have your say in the comments below.
Disclosure: Ford is a Mashable sponsor. The author's trip to Madrid for the Ford Focus test drive event was paid for by Ford.
More Social Good Resources from Mashable:
- HOW TO: Run a Global Charity Event From Your Laptop
- Group Buying for Social Good: 7 Sites Using Daily Deals to Give Back
- 4 Social Trends Impacting the Future of Online Fundraising