Ford Galaxy of Stories

The challenge

Ford came to us with the following objectives for it's 2007 Ford Galaxy campaign:

• Present the car as an ideal family vehicle
• Build a deeper relationship with families
• Make Ford Galaxy 1st choice for MPVs

The solution

The Ford Galaxy of Stories - Classic FM produced a series of 20 favourite Hans Christian  Andersen stories, voiced by famous celebrities including Richard E Grant and Joanna Lumley.

Linking with the Times and Sunday Times, the stories were reviewed on a weekly basis and were available on Classic FM, the Times and Ford websites.  We also produced podcasts that were available as downloads on iTunes.

Each week a new rich media creative would appear on Classic FM's home page and when clicked, transported users to a Ford-branded advertorial page to listen or download the content.

Ford Galaxy further promoted this sponsorship through the Classic FM database via newsletters and solus newsletters, also incorporating various competitions which proved to be very popular.

To ensure consistency across Classic FM, Ford Galaxy sponsored the Listen Live player with an audio message telling our users what story to expect next week.

All the elements of the campaign were created in house - from the rich media, standard formats, advertorial design and the editorial content for the stories.

The result

These stories were not only brought to life on air, we also gave content to other media to ensure maximum amplification of the concept.
The results achieved vs the client’s objectives were excellent:

• Objective: Present the car as an ideal family vehicle - Result: 3 in 4 recallers gave Ford a 7+ (out of 10) score for family friendliness.
• Objective: Build a deeper relationship with families - Result: A third of those who listened to the programme listened with their children.
• Objective:  Make Ford Galaxy 1st choice for MPVs - Result: listeners were twice as likely to associate Ford with MPV’s than non listeners.

The figures were great too: The podcast achieved 189,877 downloads making it No. 1 in the family and kids iTunes chart,  which ultimately led to an amazing 32% sales increase.