• The Wall Street Journal , Friday, December 5, 2008 11:46 AM

When times were better, American automakers were known to be early adopters of new digital marketing techniques to promote their vehicles. Now, with the U.S. Big Three in turmoil, executives at Ford, Chrysler and General Motors are now turning to the Web to lobby for billions of dollars in federal aid. The Wall Street Journal reports that the American automakers have launched a series of campaigns on sites like Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and various blogs to make their case for a bailout.

"The automakers in general have gotten a black eye in the media, and we didn't feel like we were getting a fair shake," says Scott Monty, global digital and multimedia communications manager at Ford. "With digital media, it lives on for a long time. It's picked up in Google searches, people pass it along and share messages they care about with blogs and their social networks of choice," he said. Last week, Ford launched a Web site called TheFordStory.com in an attempt to differentiate itself from GM and Chrysler and is buying keywords on Google to promote it.

GM, meanwhile, is posting videos on YouTube, calling on many of its customers and vendors, who are also in danger of going under should the Big Three fail, to lobby Congress, citing the impact that their businesses face if the industry collapses. Weak automotive spending has already taken a huge bite out of the profits of many media companies and ad agencies, which depend on their advertising dollars.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »