Ford Wants You to "Swap Your Ride"

Ford Motor Company has recently launched its newest marketing campaign called “Swap Your Ride.” This campaign will feature real people sharing their feedbacks after driving Ford vehicle models for about a week.

“When consumers experience a new Ford vehicle for themselves – especially when they haven’t driven one of our products lately – it’s almost always an eye-opening experience. In ‘Swap Your Ride,’ real people tell this story in their own words.” said Barry Engle, general manager, Ford Marketing.

According to Ford, to ensure the authenticity of the feedbacks from customers, they created a market research company called In Home Test Drive Experience LLC, to recruit about 90 competitive vehicle owners to evaluate and test drive one of 11 Ford vehicle models for one week including the Ford Fusion, Focus, Mustang, Taurus, Edge, Escape, Escape Hybrid, Expedition, Expedition EL, F-150 or F-Series Super Duty. A video crew will follow the participant during the one week of test driving. These documents will be converted into a 30-second TV spots. In addition, the advertising campaign will also hit other media including print ads and the internet.

This marketing campaign also encourages consumers to get a new Ford vehicle (hence the name “Swap Your Ride”) with the lease and retail offers below:

* Up to $1,000 “Swap Bonus Cash” on most 2007 and 2008 model year Ford vehicles in addition to all existing retail and lease offers
* The “Swap Bonus Cash” offer for most eligible vehicles is $1,000; the 2008 Ford Fusion and Mustang are eligible for $500 “Swap Bonus Cash”
* 2007 F-150 models will offer $1,000 “Swap Bonus Cash” plus zero percent financing for 60 months
* 2007 Explorer, SportTrac and Ranger will offer stand-alone zero percent financing for 60 months (or 1.9 percent financing plus $1,000 “Swap Bonus Cash”)
* Certain 2007 and 2008 models, including Shelby and Harley-Davidson models, are not eligible for “Swap Bonus Cash”

So ah... are you willing to swap your ride?