Team Spirit - Ford Motor Web partnerships - Brief Article

Brandweek, Nov 8, 1999 by Roberta Bernstein

"This is sort of the big idea that we're working to develop," says David Blair, vice president for sponsorship, iVillage, "[ways] for us to create feedback that goes into Ford and its design process."

As for content on WAC, it's coproduced by iVillage and Ford, with new feature stories and feature tools changed and/or tweaked regularly. The site also commissions articles, as well as culls existing information from such iVillage areas as bulletin boards, online discussions and poll results.

The poll seems especially biased toward Ford's research purposes. For example, the question "How do you (yeah you) think people under 25 are different from people over 35?" serendipitously splits itself into demographic camps. The choices, by the way, are "More optimistic"; "More realistic"; "More pessimistic"; "More narcissistic"; and "This question is a trick"--a lame attempt, perhaps, at cutting-edge humor.

Content "is an amalgam of the best content from where it might be available," adds David Fales, director of sponsorship marketing for iVillage. "Naturally, we talk to Ford and examine their resources and information ... and we use that information." And at Ford's request, he adds, any repurposed content of Ford's that carries overt branding messages is deleted. Some of the information, for instance, comes from Ford's in-house women's marketing office, which does research independent from its interest in WAC.

"The point," adds Johnston, "is not to sell Ford, but to give people information about topics."

Ford also has a presence on iVillage's allhealth.com area--which requires user registration--due, in part, to Ford's continuing sponsorship of the Race for the Cure for breast cancer research. Users can click on to all-health (via the same Quick Click tool bar that links to WAC), which has a cancer area as well as a Ford-sponsored area where visitors can sign up for breast-exam reminders. That, in turn, brings up a link to WAC, as well as to Ford's Race for the Cure page. Visitors also can access the breast-exam reminder area under Tools on the home page. Additional health content includes a Ford-sponsored feature consisting of "inspiring breast cancer survivor stories."

In the works: Plans for increased integration throughout the site, and links with parenting and financing areas.

"That goes back to the overall strategy," says Blair, "where we're trying to look at different brands and find the appropriate place to market them."

GEN Y BULLS EYE?

Product-hungry Gen Y'ers are glued to their computers. They're also partial to sports utility vehicles. Thus auto manufacturers are wracking their brains to find on- and offline ways to bring baby boomer babies into the car fold.

In theory, then--DEN's soft launch was last May; its official launch is still one to three weeks away--a sponsorship on DEN makes sense. The cyber-forward, echo-boomer site is an Internet television network with original programming, delivered free and on-demand. And with top executives including alum from in-school, ad-supported TV network Channel One, DEN clearly wants to work with brands to help them target tweens and teens.