Insight

The Ford Ranger is an icon in the European pickup landscape, cherished by a loyal customer base for its unmatched value in both work and personal life. Despite being the best-selling model and at the top of its game, the competition remains fierce. Reaching new prospects is a challenge since our audience engages with specific formats and channels.

Our audience isn’t interested in flashiness—they’re the opposite of posers. To truly connect with them, we need to embrace and highlight the Ranger’s rugged, no-nonsense appeal. This means showcasing its toughness and reliability in a way that resonates with their practical, down-to-earth values.

In essence, our strategy revolves around:

• Authenticity: Highlighting the Ranger’s durability and practicality, akin to a well-loved, tough pair of jeans.
• Targeted Engagement: Utilizing the specific formats and channels our audience prefers.
• Bold Demonstrations: Emphasizing real-world toughness by subjecting the Ranger to scratches, scrapes, and rigorous tests.

By leaning into what makes the Ranger genuinely appealing to its core audience, we aim to reinforce its iconic status and expand its loyal following.

The Idea – Go Break It In

‘Go Break It In’ is unlike most car ads as instead of showing the vehicle in its shiny new state, the spot encourages audiences to make use of the pickup’s full potential, unafraid to get it a little bit dirty. 

The creative shows the Ranger on a journey to be broken and audiences are shown a rugged-looking man spending the first few days with his new pickup truck working with it, deliberately punishing it and dirtying it. Whilst putting the truck through its paces the creative showcases some of the new features of the vehicle. The work directly challenges usual automotive category conventions by rejecting the usual beauty shots of gleaming vehicles. 

The Media Strategy needed to support this and focussed heavily on connecting with the audience in the channels they have higher affinity with, using innovative, big, bold & strong formats on all activations across the customer journey. The main goal: Convert Intenders to Buyers & Buyeeres to Advocates.

The Feedback

Richard Beard, Marketing and Communications Manager at Ford Pro, says: “Ranger is an iconic vehicle within the European pickup landscape, with a loyal customer base who value what the product brings to both their work and personal lives. This campaign shows a brief glimpse of just some of the arduous tasks that owners might subject their Rangers to and the inevitable bond that builds between the customer and their vehicle.”