The case “story” I shared with the AdTech audience a few weeks ago showed of a number of elements executing a digital influence strategy through discussing some of the work that Ford has been doing.  In one slide, I featured a photo of Brad & Emma – 2 Fiesta “agents” chosen to drive Ford Fiesta for 6 months prior to it becoming available in the US and take it on monthly missions.  Little did I know that @cupster – a direct connection to Brad & Emma and key player in their campaign site followthefiesta.com – would be in the audience.

After getting connected to them digitally, I asked if they would share some insight into WHY they wanted to apply to drive and spread WOM on a car they had never driven.  I also asked about the role of social media in their strategy.  After all, they DID get the car.  Here is some wisdom from @followthefiesta:

VM: You and Emma were clearly extremely passionate about becoming one of the 100 Agents in the Fiesta Movement.  How did you hear about the opportunity?  What appealed to you about the Fiesta?

FTF: We had a blast working on this project! I heard about this ‘contest’ from a friend that entered and it turned into a little ‘friendly’ competition.  The idea that we could hit the open roads in a new car (that no one has seen) and set out on adventures is what appealed most to us.  We work indoors in a live performing arts theater everyday. So, the excuse to get outdoors in the fresh air is an added bonus too!

VM: How did you decide what forms of social media to include in your Follow the Fiesta campaign (blog, twitter, youtube, google friend connect, other?)?

FTF: We searched around a bit to discover what other people that had entered were using as the key social networking components. We immediately purchased our domain name followthefiesta.com and then began branding this across the other forms of social media. Twitter, Youtube, Facebook Fan Page, etc all helped us try to get people to watch our audition video.  From the very beginning, we knew that we wanted to create a brand (followthefiesta) and a tagline (follow brad follow emma) so people would remember us through out the project. After we came up with the site name and tagline, we approached Adam (Cuppyyarrish.com) to see if he thought we could actually pull off everything that we felt needed to happen to get the exposure and grab the attention of the Selection Committee. We created the audition video and also several shorter videos (we like to call Nuggets) used to promote our brand.

VM: How are you and Emma resolving who actually gets to DRIVE the car?

FTF: The great thing about that situation is that we both work at the Craterian Theater (www.craterian.org ) and have the same identical schedule. We carpool to work and for errands around town. (So, not only did we win the contest but we are doing our part by keeping extra cars off the roadways by carpooling!) We do a pretty good job taking turns driving, and now that I’m not as ‘rusty’ with the manual transmission Emma may have to race me to get to the drivers seat first!

VM: I love your Ryan Stiles nugget video.  Any other celeb appearances in Follow’s future?

FTF: We’re always on the look-out for additional appearances and hope to get a few more down the road. Ryan was a great sport!  Stay tuned for a few more surprises that will include some well known personalities.