To de-stereotype Ford in the eyes of many, we needed to go beyond advertising. To do this, we partnered with a surprising Ford driver and mechanic, Sydney Sweeney. We worked with her to expand our social reach and engagement on TikTok & Instagram with an Auto 101 series, an inclusive workwear line sold in the IG Shop, and a custom car giveaway.

In order to set Ford’s business up for long-term success, we set our sights on improving brand perceptions by women.

While women saw a lot of positives in a brand that stood for toughness and strength, they also found a lot they didn’t relate to. We needed to take aim at the stereotypes cast on Ford to shift perceptions and expand our brand meaning.

The catch was, the auto industry itself is largely built by men, for men. In fact, only 2% of mechanics are female.

As a leader in auto, Ford wanted to inspire more women to join this space by helping them see themselves in it. To do so, we partnered with someone who is passionate about working on vintage Ford cars – Sydney Sweeney.

Supported by 47 years of truck leadership, Ford's current business was healthy. However today's strength masked a longer-term challenge – a persistent underperformance with women vs. the category. Today only 29% of new Ford buyers are women vs. category leader Toyota (41%).

Given women make up 40% of car buyers, this share gap posed a long-term challenge for the brand and the business.

We needed to begin improving perceptions with women to support long-term sales growth in order to ensure a prosperous future for Ford.

Our objectives were to:

- Increase brand relevance with women

- Increase brand consideration with women

- Increase social conversation and sentiment amongst women

- Generate earned media for Ford outside of typical auto publications

Knowing we needed to get the attention of people that don’t have us on their radar (in a category where we were outspent 4:1), we needed a way in that wasn’t us talking about ourselves.

Instead, we would share the mic with a real Ford driver, who is also often stereotyped herself.

Enter Sydney Sweeney. While best known for her role in Euphoria, Sydney unexpectedly created her own personal TikTok channel documenting her work on a 1969 Ford Bronco and teasing her 1964 Ford Mustang. Her love for Ford and working on cars didn’t stop there; she actually learned how to drive on her grandfather’s F-100.

We would work with Sydney to build a world that helped women feel more comfortable in the male-dominated space of automotive.

We tapped into Sydney’s knowledge and passionate fan base and met them where they were at – on social.

The core of the campaign was built upon Sydney’s TikTok channel @Syds_Garage. During the pandemic, she started this account to walk her family and friends through her Ford Bronco restoration process. Fans were eating it up this unpolished, different side of Sydney.

We wanted to take what they were loving and turn it up to 11. This inspired us to make an Auto 101 Series, as well as a host of other work that connected back to Sydney’s authentic love for working on Ford cars.

We played with many different formats and content types on both Instagram and TikTok.

Starting with an Auto 101 video series for both Instagram Reels and TikTok where Sydney taught auto maintenance basics, like how to check your oil and more.

In partnership with Sydney and Dickies, we created an inclusive workwear line that took into account her style and the necessity for utility. We sold it through Ford’s Instagram Shop.

To promote the workwear, we created a lookbook on IG Stories that doubled as an instruction manual, a continuation of our Auto 101 series. This book featured Sydney alongside five female mechanics. We saved this IG Story instructional “book” to Ford’s IG Highlights so people can always reference it.

Finally, Sydney helped us design a custom baby blue 2024 Mustang GT to give away to fans on Instagram and TikTok.

The campaign surpassed benchmarks across the board from earned coverage to brand health results to social engagement; accomplishing our objectives:

Increase in social conversation and sentiment amongst women:

- Ford’s most liked Instagram post…ever. With 1.2M engagements, 2.7M Impressions, and 45% Engagement Rate.

- Ford’s most viewed Instagram Reel…ever. With 16.3M organic views.

- Ford experienced +46% increase in mentions week over week (WoW) in the first 48 hours with a +94% increase in mentions from Women and an +82% increase in positive sentiment from Women

Generate earned media for Ford outside of typical auto publications

- 126.3M Total Earned Impressions with 33% higher female coverage than typical Ford campaigns

Increase brand relevance & consideration with women

- Significant increase in brand health metrics amongst Millennial Women: Favorable Opinion (+24%), Relevance (+30%), Consideration (+96%), Purchase Intent (+141%)

- Contributed +10% incremental product sales at campaign peak, led by women