In Online Competition, It's Ford Fusion 41, Other Guys 0

Ever heard of the Society for New Communications Research? Me neither, but the folks at Ford are getting familiar with the group, especially now that it has named the Blue Oval one of its "Brands of the Year."

Per Ford's press statement, the society is a "global non-profit research and education foundation and think tank that measures online tools' impact on business, media, culture and society." And if that sounds a little too "virtual" to have an effect on the auto industry, well, welcome to the 21st century.

Because while auto companies are still working out how best to convert social media to retail sales, it's now a well-accepted belief that that's exactly what you have to do to be successful in today's industry. Which brings us to the recent Fiesta Movement campaign, Ford's effort to provide 100 "digital influencers" with European versions of the coming new Fiesta compact.

Apparently, those individuals influenced enough digits to both help earn some recognition from the aforementioned society and convince the OEM to try the same kind of approach with the new Ford Fusion.

The Fusion 41 program is looking to turn up 41 current owners of the Fusion/Fusion Hybrid who "must be passionate about their Fusion and have a compelling desire and ability to spread the word about it on social media sites." (FYI: The "41" bit refers to the city mpg number achieved by the Fusion Hybrid.)

Now, despite being an Internet journalist myself — at least that's what I tell people, sometimes even with a straight face — I've long been on the fence regarding the effectiveness of these type of Web-based campaigns. But then I had ye olde epiphany.

I was getting my hair cut yesterday and overheard Big Al and one of the customers discussing Mustangs. The customer had just become the second owner of an all-original 1966, having bought it off a guy who had actually helped build it on the line. Al had been a long-time owner of a 1968 that he had given it the full-on lowrider treatment. And as I listened to them talk about swapping engines and adding chain-link steering wheels, it really brought home to me that the Internet was just bringing this kind of dialogue and passion for cars out of the barbershop and online.

And I suppose that if Big Al could make me lust in my heart for my own vintage pony car, the right Fiesta Mover might be able to get someone else moving into a new Fiesta. It's just a question of putting all the right pieces together, and it's becoming apparent that Ford is puzzling things out pretty well.

Here's another example: Rally driver Ken Block is closing in on a contract with the Blue Oval that would put him behind a Ford Focus in the World Rally Championship series. Of course, Ken Block is more than "just" a rally driver to a big group of potential consumers. He's one of those Web-friendly extreme sports superstars, who's competed in a variety of board sports, co-founded a company that makes high-end shoes for skateboarders, "appeared" in some blockbuster video games, and, yes, won a few rallies.

Now, the WRC is a huge spectacle in Europe, run by the same organization that backs Formula One racing, and Ford has seen its share of success in the series, winning manufacturers' championships in 2006 and 2007 with the Focus.

So the idea is to get Block into a Focus, get the WRC to do some races in the U.S., and then use the ol' "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" strategy to boost Focus sales — fully leveraging the fact that racing is one of the most popular topics of discussion among social media users.

In fact, recent research has specifically noted that the NASCAR effect remains a strong influence among young buyers who spend time online, with interest in the racing series continuing to be reflected in Web activity.

That makes it perhaps less than a coincidence that the Block story broke soon after the NASCAR Mustang made its first public appearance.

NASCAR fans can look for Mustangs to compete in a few 2010 Nationwide Series races, and then compete in that series full time in 2011. If successful there, the jump to the big time — the Nextel Series — has to be considered a fait accompli.

Combining Ford's increasing — and increasingly effective — social media activities with a NASCAR revitalized by the introduction of the Mustang (and, so rumors say, of the Dodge Challenger) could add up to more than a virtual success for the Blue Oval — it could mean more of the real thing.