Ford is shifting from a marketing strategy that is primarily based on media relations to one fixated on storytelling. Mark Truby, vice president of European communications at Ford, told The Drum that rather than concentrate media spend on coverage in car magazines and on TV shows, social media now offers the brand a greater access to a larger pool of fans.

As a marketing move, it symbolises Ford’s tendency to rely on word of mouth using influencers as opposed to paid media which grips the PR focus of the brand.

“If we’ve got a cool piece of content then we’ll invest modestly behind it to get it going but for us it’s about that earned media when trying to create that ongoing buzz,” said Truby. “More of our content has to go straight to the end user. We want to make our car launches events that people are going to talk about.”

Take a look at the new film – The Ford Focus RS Model was driven by popular stung driver Ken Block and he demonstrates the car’s handling.

We wanted to get over 2 million views for that video,” revealed Truby.

“But a little of that is putting your finger in the air and trying to figure out which way the wind’s blowing. It’s not always about how many orders we generate for car. In this case we’re pretty far out from the actual car being in dealerships until next year. This is more about generating early interest. We want people to think Ford is a car for somebody like them. That’s the challenge.”