CASE STUDY: How hot sauce created heat for the Ford Fiesta ST

Aim

Raise awareness and sales for the New Zealand launch of the Fiesta ST, a spiced-up version of the Ford Fiesta.

Execution

JWT Auckland worked with a gourmet sauce maker to concoct a hot sauce with a flavour profile suitable to the car, even tracking down the hottest chillis grown in New Zealand. The final product, ST Hot Sauce, registered an "eye-wateringly hot" 1.463 million scoville units, according to the agency.

The agency had 3000 bottles manufactured and distributed them around the top restaurants in Auckland in July. Nearby these restaurants, transit posters urged people to visit the Ford Facebook page to win a bottle of the sauce for home. Other print executions also supported the campaign by featuring the ST sauce bottle label that promoted the car.

The agency simultaneously launched a promotion on the Ford NZ Facebook page, with a short video detailing the sauce and a simple give-away competition with the sauce as a prize.

Results

The sauce itself found favour with chefs and patrons at the restaurants, becoming a talking point both at the table and online. Better yet, two-thirds of the limited edition vehicles available sold in the first two months. Ford also recorded a 5 per cent increase in Facebook fans in the first two weeks of the campaign.

CREDITS

Agency
Cleve Cameron – Executive Creative Director
Mike Ramsay – Creative
Glenn Chapman – Designer
Darryn Warhaft – Creative Services Director
Peeyoosh Chandra - Head of Interactive & Social
Nigel Cherrie – Digital Producer
Cynthia Eddington – Digital Creative
Simon Lendrum – Managing Director
Jacqueline Smart – Planning Director
Dom Henshall – Group Account Director
Bibiana Mayans – Senior Account Manager
Alex Wilson – Account Executive
Suzanne Bull – Media Director
Augusta Grayson – Media Planner

Client
Neale Hill – Managing Director
Chris Masterson – General Marketing Manager
Rachel Jones – Marketing and Communication Manager

Production Company
Director, editor, post: Anthony Plant
Song: La Bamba
Arrangement: Trio Azteca