If you are not one of the official sponsors of the Olympics, creating social media campaigns that center around the games or any of the various themes of the games without breaking any of the rules set by the US Olympic Committee (USOC) for their intellectual property can be quite a difficult task. In fact, it can be daunting.
But trust Ford to find a way to build a social media ad campaign which does not even mention the Olympics but is about nothing else.
2017 Ford Escape
The new campaign by Ford for this SUV titled, "We are All Fans" will be launched on Friday with Snapchat advertisements which focuses on patriotism and fandom. On the 13th of August, Ford is going to be launching a sponsored Snapchat lens which allows users to paint their face red, white, and blue and also activate confetti showers in their snaps.
Indirect Attention
These snap ads do indirectly draw attention to the Olympics. They have one person performing the pommel horse routine on his Ford Escape, there is a weightlifter putting boxes into her SUV, and there is a clapping dog too. Some of the ads got pretty cheeky with the doors of one Escape opening up with a tagline, "here's to a ceremonious opening," and then closing with "here's to a ceremonious closing."
It works though! There is nothing wrong with a little creativity and who believes the USOC should have that much power anyway?! On top of this, too bad Ford has nothing that can clean water. Our athletes are performing in sewage water!
But none of these ads violate any of the USOC's rules regarding what non-sponsor brands can say about the games. The creativity behind these ads sparkled with the ads which found loopholes so they could link their SUVs with the Olympics.
The digital marketing manager at Ford, Lisa Schoder, said that they took the USOC guidelines seriously and wouldn't do anything that opposed them. She said that these ads were all about their 'Life's a sport' platform and how people were going to be second screening for the games. It simply acknowledges what is happening in the today's world and embraces it. That is one smart way to get the word out and grab attention.
Future Content
Ford is going to be creating more than two-hundred real-time content pieces through Twitter during the games with the help of GIFs and emoji’s that are related to various sporting events. But the brand is going to be careful to not use any of the Olympic terminologies which have been banned.
Some of the keywords which they are going to be targeting with these ads include human, smart, strong, and active according to the social marketing manager at Ford, Kellee Montgomery.
Ford also has plans to develop quite a bit of content on the spot about the most talked about moments at the games. There are a number of other ways in which non sponsor brands are also going to be doing the same.
It is simply a matter of monitoring what is going on in the world today, how it relates to the conversations on social media, and how Ford can join in on these conversations to make an impact. Everyone knows that there is going to be a huge audience which is consuming Olympics-related content over the next couple of weeks and Ford just wants to be a part of this excitement and energy even if they are not an official sponsor.
There is nothing wrong with that!