With Bryan Cranston at the Wheel, W+K Debuts a New Brand Positioning for Ford
The automaker hangs its hat on being ‘Built Ford Proud’
The New York office of Wieden + Kennedy is turning the key on a new era for Ford in its first campaign for the automaker.
The agency was tapped to lead Ford’s fall campaign in August, while its global creative review was still going on. While BBDO was named global lead creative agency in that review, Ford is opting for a multiagency model with W+K officially serving as its innovation partner on select projects.
With its “Built Ford Proud” campaign, W+K New York appears to have shaped the brand’s creative approach for the foreseeable future.
In the 60-second anthem ad “The Future Is Built,” Bryan Cranston makes his in-person debut for the brand, highlighting Ford’s new focus and attitude. He notes that the future “isn’t created in a keynote address,” and that a presidential speech didn’t get us to the moon—”they built their way there.”
The ad positions Ford as a company dedicated to “building for the next century” rather than just talking about the future, concluding with Cranston delivering a closing line that acts as a brush-off to legions of competitors.
Cranston has done voiceover work for the brand for around two years, and Ford director of U.S. marketing Matt VanDyke said the brand was looking for a way to humanize its message in a way that felt “honest and authentic.”
“Bryan delivers that in spades,” he said, and is someone Ford can count on to “explain the degree of complexity [and] authenticity of Ford’s path as well as innovations and work we’re doing for Ford’s future.”
“We haven’t always spoken with this tone of voice,” VanDyke added, a tone that “reflects pride with every touchpoint.”
A second ad, “The Family Name,” takes a minimalist approach, focusing on Ford’s iconic blue oval and zeroing in on what the brand’s logo and name say about its legacy and commitment to integrity.
“We’re a family business with a special set of values,” VanDyke said, “set against a backdrop of declining consumer trust in companies.”
Ford group Chief Marketing Officer Joy Falotico added that the campaign was “rooted in the fact that we’re a family business, something that’s uniquely Ford.”
Another pair of ads showcase the Ford Escape as “the car you want when you want an SUV” and “the SUV you want when you want a car” and promotes the brand’s line of trucks.
The campaign arrives ahead of a series of new models Ford plans to unveil in the coming year, including the Ford Ranger and new Ford Explorer, acting as an introduction to the new face of the company, as well as its marketing. Ford claims around 75 percent of its vehicles will be new models by 2020.
“Built Ford Proud” makes its broadcast debut Saturday during NCAA Football and will continue to run during high-profile sporting events such as NFL Football and the World Series, as well as prime time programming including Grey’s Anatomy and The Voice. Broadcast will be supported by a digital component and a print campaign which kicks off with full-page print ads in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post this weekend and will run for two weeks.
According to Falotico, the media plan will deliver over 90 million impressions.
VanDyke said that Ford plans to use the “Built Ford Proud” approach as a brand platform going forward, calling it, “something that goes back to who we’ve always been, who we always will be.”
GTB will handle the marketing campaign promoting the brand’s year-end sales event in November, building on the approach W+K introduces with this series of ads.
Falotico said the brand platform provides “the bandwidth for multiple players to be able to play on it.”
At the beginning of 2019, BBDO will take over creative duties with the agency’s first campaign anticipated sometime thereafter, also building on the “Built Ford Proud” positioning. After that, GTB’s creative work with the brand will “wind down,” Falotico explained, except for in China, where GTB still serves as creative agency of record.
Falotico explained that the U.S. campaign allowed Ford to test out its new multi-agency model, adding that it was “coincidental” that they saw the campaign as “something to jump on” as a brand platform.
“BBDO can build on this,” she said, explaining the agency would play a large role in the U.S. and globally.
“W+K works with a lot of agencies. We think it’s going to really be to our strength that we have them on the roster,” she added.
CREDITS
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy New York
Client: Ford Motor Company
Campaign: “Built Ford Proud”
Executive Creative Director – Karl Lieberman
Creative Directors – Eric Helin, Stuart Jennings, Jimm Lasser, Caleb Jensen
Copywriters – Andrew Kim, Matt Simpson, Maddy Baldwin
Art Directors – Dan Koo, Alison Joseph, Alex McClelland
Head of Integrated Production – Nick Setounski
Executive Producer – Orlee Tatarka
Producers – Liz Hodge, Helen Park
Art Producer- Pietro Clemente
Director of Brand Strategy – Dan Hill
Brand Strategists – Tass Tsitsopoulos, Cristina Pansolini
Head of Media Planning – Karlo Cordova
Business Affairs – Amber Lavender, Anna Beth Nagel
Project Manager – Meredith Bergonzi
Traffic Manager – Sonia Bisono
Production Company – Reset
Directors – Wally Pfister, Ian Pons Jewell
DP: Mauro Chiarello
Managing Director – Dave Morrison
Executive Producer – Deannie O’Neil
Head of Production – JP Colombo
Producers – Kelli Abraham, Veronica Madrigal
Production Supervisor – Ted Liotopoulus, Rachel Slayback
Editorial Company – Rock Paper Scissors
Managing Director: Eve Kornblum
Executive Producer – Raná Martin
Producers – Lisa Barnable, Adam Parker
Editors – Mikkel Nielsen, Ted Guard, Biff Butler, Olivier Bugge Coutté
Assistants – Alyssa Oh, Rhys Hecox, Michael Shugarman, Thomas Rickert
Colour – The Mill NY
Colourist – Damien Van Der Cruyssen
Colour Producer – Megan Rumph
Audio Post – Sonic Union
Audio Post Mixer – Steve Rosen
Audio Post Mixer – Michael Marinelli
Audio Post Mixer – Joe O’Connell
Audio Post Producer – Carolyn Mandlavitz
VFX – The Mill LA
Executive Producer – Pete King
Producer – Erin Hicke, Michael Theurer
Production Coordinator – Vanessa Yee, Ade Macalinao, Ariana Govan
Shoot Supervisor – Chris Knight, Steve Cokonis, Robert Chapman, Eliza Randall, Tara DeMarco
VFX Creative – The Mill
Creative Director – John Leonti
Art Director – 2D Lead Artist: Steve Cokonis, Adam Lambert
3D Lead Artist – Robert Chapman
2D Artist – Toby Brockhurst, Yukiko Ishiwata, Kai Chun Tsai, Patrick Dirks, Tom Van Dop, Tim Robbins, Carlos Morales, Stephen Holbrook, Talia Gleason, Young Joon Mok, Joseph Zaki, Dustin Padgett, Lindsey Fry, Marguerite Cargill, Reyna Delaney, Tony D’Agostino
3D Artist – Michael Lori, Danny Garcia, Elizabeth Hammer, Walker Kennedy, Jae Jun Yi, Daniel Soo, Raphael Protti, Ganesh Lamkhade, Rajan Ramakrishna, Sendil Kumar J, Spandana Battula, Sunil MM, Tarun Kemtur, Upasana Choudhary
Matte Painting – Itai Muller
Animation – Jason Jansky, Jeffrey Lee,
Design – Ed Laag, Bobby Lewis, Vladislav Ociacia, Andrew Hoeveler, Ken Pelletier, Long Ouyang
Additional Tracking Supervisor – Senthil Murugan Balasundaram
Additional Production Coordinator – Noan John
Line Producer – R Anuraj
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