• by Karl Greenberg , January 10, 2011

Ford's 2011 Explorer has one big thing going for it. It just won North American Truck of the Year, an honor that confers upon one nameplate the accumulated kudos of auto writers from Canada and the U.S.

But there are still some challenges for the brand, which was among the first SUVs when it rolled into showrooms in 1990. Ford has to be clear that the new Explorer is not your father's (or older brother's) Explorer: it isn't a true body-on-frame truck. While that means it may not have quite the pickup-truck towing ability of the old SUV, Ford has to make it clear that the new truck gets far better mileage, seats seven, and handles a lot better, while retaining the off-road and snow capability of a 4x4.

While Ford is doing that in its new "Go. Do" campaign, it is also using the push to tout Explorer as a rolling multimedia experience by focusing on its onboard telematics and media tools. With its adventure theme, the new campaign also seems to hearken back to the "Outfitters" motif that Ford used early in the millennium to promote the Explorer, Escape and Expedition trio of SUVs as outdoor-activity vehicles.

The company currently has three "Go. Do" TV spots and is about to add a fourth, according to Eric Peterson, Ford Explorer communications manager. Peterson tells Marketing Daily that a fourth spot will focus more on the vehicle's interior, partly to make it clear that the vehicle seats seven.

The TV ads, with a handheld-camera look and documentary feel, show people taking the vehicle on trips to do things like windsurf, hike, ski and travel, documenting their experiences and putting the visuals and videos on the MyFord Touch media platform. "It's meant to have that feel; it's about how people capture their own memories," says Peterson.

He says Ford will soon extend the online component of the Explorer campaign with a road-trip themed promotion, "Go. Do. Adventures." The online campaign will give people a chance to take the vehicle on a dream road trip. Although Peterson says the program is still getting final nips and tucks, the idea is that people go to the Explorer social media platforms like Facebook and explain how they would use the vehicle to take their dream road trip.

"The idea is, if you had a Ford Explorer, what would it allow you to do that you have never done before?" says Peterson. "Now that we have product on the ground, it lets us bring these adventures to life in a way that resonates, and that gets consumers involved. It's similar to what we did with Mustang [in which a blind Roger Keeney got to fulfill his dream of driving the car and Ford created a Web documentary series "Blink of an Eye" about his experience]."

Since a large part of the effort is promoting the interior seating, people have to also focus on how they would involve a group of friends or family in the road trip. "The cool thing is you don't know what you will get; consumers will create the unique experience and we work with them and try to make it happen," says Peterson. "We will kick it off in a couple of weeks, then throughout the year, hopefully, it will carry us forward past the launch phase after heavy mass media and tier-one efforts are pulled back. It gives us some legs to keep the campaign going."

Peterson says the launch is made easier because Explorer has positive brand equity and a big pool of loyalists. It also helps, he says, that the new version looks strikingly different from previous generations of the vehicle -- clearly a crossover rather than a traditional truck. "We don't have the struggle; we are already there. People know Explorer. So I see [awareness] as a major asset. If there were negative equity, we'd have a problem."

As for Truck of the Year honors, "It can help build awareness, and as shoppers start to make choices, these things make the difference," says Peterson. "We will find ways to talk about it, and that includes dealers talking about it on the front line, when they are talking to customers."