Ford Fiesta + Blog = Selling a Car

It was an afterthought - I did it just because I had 5 extra minutes on a slow Friday afternoon. I really didn't think they would take my submission seriously...but they did, and I ended up with 5 days with European-spec Ford Fiesta.

Huh?

Allow me to explain: Ford is promoting their new global car the Fiesta that has already landed in Europe and Asia but doesn't arrive in the US until early 2010. Also, the Ford marketers have acquired quite a fixation with social networking lately. So combine the two and you get a marketing plan to demonstrate the merits of the Fiesta through social networking...genius (tic).

So back to my slow Friday afternoon. Every day I receive somewhere between 3 and 300 corporate Ford emails ranging from "2nd Quarter Earnings" to "Found: silver hoop earrings found in the men's restroom near Zone 2J." OK I made that last one up, but it's not too far off...but I digress. An email popped up inviting us to submit a plan for what we would do if we were given a European-spec Ford Fiesta for 5 days and how we would share the experience with our friends.

I ain't no dummy.

I had a few minutes of spare time.

I have a British Driver's Licence (spelled with a "c").

And I know how to blog - or at least my wife does and I've watched her do it tons of times.

So I spent 5 minutes and weaved a tale about how I would use the Fiesta, drive it like a European and then blog about it...and they chose me to be one of forty drivers during the summer of 2009.

That was back in June...I think...and they didn't give me the opportunity to drive one until now. In the meantime, I have read the write-ups of other employees that - with all due respect to them - can be summarized like this:

• I was excited to get the car
• I didn't think I would get as much attention as I would
• People were slowing down to take pictures of the car
• My friend - who is 6'7" got in and was surprised at how well he fit in the car
• ....Yawn...
• I drove somewhere and parked it somewhere where people could see it

I can do better than that - in fact I had something like this in mind:

Obviously, as much as I would have liked to attempt an amphibious assault with a Fiesta, I just signed an agreement that basically said that if anything happened to the Fiesta while I had it they would make me listen to Neil Diamond while being waterboarded...or something like that. So no amphibious assault. Instead I decided to do what all Ford employees have been asked to do: Sell Cars.

Now - finally to the purpose of this blog and how I will fulfill my responsiblity as a Fiesta driver and a good Ford employee: I am going to attempt to sell a Fiesta ------ to my Uncle Bill.

Aside: If you hadn't connected the dots yet, you should now understand the URL for this blog...

For the next couple of weeks, I am going to be driving the Fiesta and blogging about topics that may - or may not - encourage my Uncle Bill to buy a Fiesta. Success will be seeing Uncle Bill's name on the order bank that opens up somewhere in the Winter / Spring of 2010.

Buckle Up...