The Blue Oval Card, commissioned by Ford, is a world first. It has transformed auto show experiences. It is a powerful channel for customer engagement and CRM, compliant with data protection laws and a sustainable delivery model.

Since launch, the card has been successfully deployed globally at different scales, integrating regional CRM and social media requirements. The key to success is the seamless integration of the technology into the physical experience. Ensuring the technology is invisible to the audience was a priority to encourage natural participation.

We created a value exchange model so that people signing up could create and receive valuable content that they could share on their social profiles.

The main programming language used is Python. The RFID readers are Arduino, an open source prototyping electronics platform and server virtualisation through Xen Centre. CouchDB enabled us to continuous sync user profiles in the cloud profile database to the event space profile database, and visa versa. Android/iOS mobile applications to serve the roaming audience, AWS Infrastructure as a Service for cloud virtualisation to leverage global distribution using content distribution networks for reliable availability, and analytics/email through Software as a Service.

The experience platform is controlled and monitored remotely by our in-house team and continuous delivery principles are utilised for building/releasing software to manage the code quality.

The technology is community based. Open source software and the platform were designed to ensure we are not exclusively tied to one language, facilitated by introducing a service-orientated architecture and a component based execution approach.

The system is designed to allow us to build large parts in a language, which suits specific requirements, but also enabling us to keep up with the ever changing technology landscape.

Future opportunities include the integration of NFC technology and supporting the constantly evolving global social media platforms.

Our solution achieved breakthrough results and we are now expanding its use regionally and globally.

We exceeded our goal of a 25% year-over-year handraiser increase by achieving a 433% increase in shows where Blue Oval Card was featured. (Source: Ford Motor Company)

We achieved the highest experience ratings for show season, against all major manufacturers. (Source: Morpace 2012)

48% of Blue Oval Card holders had dwell times of 30 minutes or more, whereas only 21% of non-card holders had the same dwell time. (Source: Brainjuicer SatisTraction Study, February 2012)

Breakthrough amplification of the experience (YouTube/Facebook) via personalised access to a ‘digital souvenir’ Blue Oval Card website. At the North American International Auto Show 2012, we achieved over 101,000 views of shared YouTube videos, with visitors playing a starring role in a fun, augmented reality experience with gymkhana stunt driver, Ken Block. (Source: Ford Motor Company). Reach was extended to 6m.

Econometric modelling, conducted by Foresight Research, showed Ford achieving market-leading sales, influenced by the 2012 Auto Show season, representing hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and profit.

Ford Blue Oval Card, where the digital world and physical world become one. A solution for the challenge of selling cars.