Brand: Ford F-150 Truck
Execution: TV
Link:
Target: Serious Pickup Users
Reviewer: David
Rating: ****

Description:
A Ford F-150 Truck is hoisted up into the air, with the entire weight of the truck carried by a bolt – 6 of which are used to bolt the flatbed to the frame of the truck.

What Works:
There is nothing original about this ad, but it WORKS. Why? Because Ford is staying absolutely true to its F-150 brand positioning “Ford Tough.” And because the “permission to believe” or “reason why” – in this case the fact that one bolt for this truck is strong enough to bear the weight of the entire truck – is believable.

Also – for those friends of mine in love with location shots, long intros and great artistry – I should note that the F-150 is the hero here – it is on camera the entire time. In a lab. Contrast this with the Nissan X-Terra spots which have the Nissan rambling all over the countryside but are nowhere near as focused in their delivery against the brand positioning.

I hate pickups and I drive an imported car, but I have to say kudos to Ford. It’s nice to see an American car manufacturer absolutely nail a spot like this.

What Doesn’t:
“Tough” isn’t a particularly unique positioning and it may be difficult to own in the long term. It does cross territory with Jeep, Hummer and a few other brands, although the products are not direct competitors in most cases. Still, Ford has done a good job over a long period of time..

Branding Bottom Line -
Ford got it right for the F-150. Now work on the rest of the product line

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 3rd, 2005 at 3:48 pm and is filed under Ford. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.