• by Karl Greenberg , May 8, 2009

Ford is marketing to African-American and Hispanic women with parallel programs on AOL Latino and in Essence Magazine.

AOL Latino centers on a new Ford-branded women's destination, Tu Voz, www.tuvozentuvida.com, part of AOL's Latina lifestyle network, "Tu Vida y Mas." Tu Voz, ("your voice"), a Spanish-language resource for Hispanic women hosted by TV personality Lesley Ann Machado, will be promoted on social networking sites like Bebo, Facebook and Twitter. The site will feature four coaches in the areas of Lifestyle, Health, Careers and Money who will hold forth on personal empowerment.

Ford and AOL Latino will also sponsor three contests, one for each coach category combination), where consumers can submit essays at www.promocion.tuvozentuvida.com explaining why they qualify to win an empowerment getaway and personal consultation with the coaches.

David Rodriguez, multicultural marketing at the automaker, says Ford will have branding on the site, as well as digital advertising, "But I think our goal was to really have the content and the subject areas be front and center; with AOL Latino's help we found a nice balance where we could allow content to be central and have branding that is much more organic -- part of the fabric of the site," he says, adding that the brand activity focuses solely on Ford, not Mercury or Lincoln.

He says the focus on Hispanic women reflects their importance. "Hispanic women represent 50% of the Hispanic population. They are younger than the general market, plus we see them playing a bigger role within households and the work force, so we saw it as an opportunity to more closely engage with them," he says.

He adds that there are a wealth of Spanish-language sites for Hispanic women devoted to lighter issues such as entertainment and gossip, but that health and empowerment were wide open. "We found there wasn't a lot of this type of content available 'in language,' but AOL Latino was a great community to set up these messages, and we think the topics are relevant to a broad cross-section of Hispanic women. There's a lot more white space."

Per Rodriguez, the company plans to extend the relationship into experiential marketing. For example, Ford will host a Ford/AOL co-branded "Tu Voz" booth at the National Council of La Raza annual meeting in Chicago this year. "We are going to be very thoughtful in the ways we extend it in various channels. We want to find affinities with the marketplace."

Similarly, Ford's program with Essence, "Women Driving Progress," centers on health, career and finances with in-book and online Ford-branded sections in the magazine. Part of the initiative includes a contest that invites women to submit a 200-word essay telling why they would be good candidates for empowerment coaching at the 2009 Essence Music Festival, of which Ford is the exclusive auto sponsor.

Three finalists will win a trip to the July event in New Orleans to meet with their coach, and one winner will also win a 2010 Fusion Hybrid. Ford will sponsor a series of empowerment seminars over the course of the Festival.