When Ford announced they were producing a cache of Mustang Mach-E First Editions, we had to get people ordering them fast. With a looming production deadline and a virtually non-existent budget, we had to reach a new audience without being able to offer a test drive or an in-person glimpse of the vehicle.

The target for Ford’s first all-electric Mustang wasn’t made up of our typical Ford loyalists. This was a younger, more diverse and tech savvy audience, who looked to Silicon Valley for innovation, not a 110-year-old company auto company.

How do you create a launch experience that convinces a new audience to reserve a $60K car?

The Mustang Mach-E is a first for Ford: an all-electric performance vehicle with the soul of a Mustang. This is bigger than cars, it’s culture.

Mach Drop embraced the wider hype culture of sneakers, fashion and music, where limited drops have people scrambling to get the goods before they’re gone. We put the special edition Mustangs on offer like they were a pair of rare Yeezys, and managed to accomplish a number of firsts in the industry.

Our audience shared a passion for being the first to own the most exclusive or scarce objects. They would go to great lengths be early adopters, such as waiting in lines, creating bots to hijack online orders, or taking advantage of insider relationships.

The real breakthrough came from data that showed how engaged our audience was with exclusive fashion apparel and music releases. When sneakers are ‘dropped’ online, or when artists reveal an unannounced album.

This is exactly the sort of desirability that would garner broader coverage, while motivating our audience to purchase.

Each platform was selected based on the credibility and authenticity we sought to make our program stand out and give it the relevance our audience would demand.

We created a concierge hotline. And we placed the phone number to order across these environments.

In three drops, Mach Drop offered three different colorways of the First Edition, each a buzzworthy opportunity for purchase. The campaign ran for a two-week period on Ford-owned and partner social media channels, as well as on Spotify and Uncrate.

We partnered with Ford driver Vaughn Gittin Jr., who announced the first drop from inside his own Mach-E, driving fans to Uncrate. For the first time, you could buy a First Edition Mustang Mach-E on the men’s fashion and tech site.

Next, celebrity and Ford partner Idris Elba dropped the second cache of First Editions, unannounced, on an Instagram post.

Timing our final drop with the release of Matthew Dear’s track “New Breed,” we uploaded a hidden track on Spotify that let fans order a First Edition directly from a song.

Orders for the First Editions were filled in just two weeks, with a conversion rate of 44%--which is huge considering the industry benchmark is just 1.5%. With $0 in media or production, Mach Drop generated more than $200 for every dollar spent on the campaign.

Mach Drop brought Ford to a new, more diverse and tech savvy audience, showing the world that the automaker is prepared to continue innovating far into the future.

More importantly, it helped Ford embrace a new way of communicating, and the company is planning to continue the campaign for future releases.