EXPLORER ACTIVATION
SOCIAL/CONTENT
Our Webby-winning campaign launched the Explorer by making it the first EV to drive around the world.
To tackle driver anxiety about the range and durability of EVs, we re-staged a journey taken 100 years ago by Aloha Wanderwell, the first woman to drive around the world, who drove a Model T Ford.
To drive, we chose travel influencer Lexie Limitless, world record holder for being the youngest person to visit every country in the world.
The 200-day journey across 30,000 kilometres, 6 continents, and 27 countries proved the Explorer’s capabilities, and while Lexie had to overcome challenges such as charging in remote deserts, it demonstrated the possibilities of EV travel.
She was supported by a global social media audience, with over 200,000 views on TikTok and Instagram.
The adventure was also captured in a documentary content series on Prime Video, drawing 450,000 viewers to watch over 9 million minutes.
The campaign was created by AMV and executed by W&K London after a global realignment.
Directed by BAFTA-winners Chris Faith & producer Mark Saben, the series earned Critics Choice recognition in The Daily Mail and the Sunday Times, covering Lexie’s highs, hurdles, discoveries and eventual triumph.
A century after Aloha Wanderwell proved a woman could drive around the world, Lexie proved it could be done in an EV. And once again, in a Ford.
Creatives: Hetu Negri & Juan Peirano
ECD: Martin Loraine
CREATING A NEW IDENTITY FOR FORD
I was AMV’S creative lead on the Ford pitch, which called for a new, contemporary and cohesive identity across all markets, and across B2C and B2B.
After we won the pitch, as ECD of Ford of Europe, I started creating an identity for work based on my three observations:
No company has affected human life as much as Ford, so although we don’t refer to history, the work must have scale.
Despite their huge contribution to human progress, from Henry Ford’s famous quotes to their logo – four letters, one syllable - the brand is honest, unpretentious and straightforward, the work must be simple.
To work across markets and in short social formats, we avoid narrative, dialogue, complexity, and people. So work must be visual.
I worked in close and happy partnership with my Ford clients to turn these rules into the new Ford look & feel. We agreed on our principles, so it never felt like an agency-client relationship, always a partnership.
I developed a model where every campaign launched with a long format film, constructed from module scenes which could then became short form films. So then the concept, visual and tone was 100% consistent throughout up to 30 short format films, static posts and OLA carrying specific sales messaging through the funnel.
I made 11 major, cross-market, multiple channel campaigns in 4 years: new Explorer ‘Aloha’, Ranger ‘Break It In’, Ranger ‘Night Swimming’, Fordliive ‘Heartbeat’, Transit ‘Sync City’, Transit Custom ‘The Van the World Relies On’, Puma ST ‘Reads Corners’, Kuga ‘Reflections’, Ford Tourneo ‘The Van that’s a Car’, Mustang Mach E ‘SatNav’, and the Brand EV launch campaign ‘Bring On Tomorrow’.