My Role
- Acquisition Funnels
- Product Marketing
- Retail Integration
Client
- Ford Motor Company
The Challenge
Launching the all-electric F-150 Lightning required overcoming two major challenges: first, convincing traditional truck owners to adopt electric technology, and second, managing unprecedented demand to convert intense early interest into confirmed reservations and pre-orders within a tightly controlled timeline.
The campaign needed to establish the vehicle’s dual identity—as both a powerful, dependable “Built Ford Tough” truck and a futuristic EV.
My Role & Solution
As part of the agency collective, my focus was on digital acquisition and fostering early community engagement to manage the pre-order funnel and validate the Lightning’s utility across different buyer personas (commercial fleets vs. private owners).
- Integrated Pre-Order Funnel Design: I designed and implemented the technical pathways and content sequencing for the online reservation system, ensuring a seamless user experience from initial social ad click to final deposit confirmation. This was crucial for handling the massive traffic spikes on launch day.
- Utility-Focused Video Content: We moved beyond aesthetics. I oversaw the creation of short-form video content specifically demonstrating the truck’s unique features—like the “Mega Power Frunk” and “Intelligent Backup Power”—tailored for distribution across YouTube and LinkedIn (to target commercial buyers).
- Geo-Targeted Local Dealer Integration: I developed a strategy for integrating national digital buzz with local dealer action. This involved geo-targeting national ads to ensure local dealer inventory and reservation information were immediately visible to users based on proximity, bridging the digital gap to the physical sales network.
Impact & Results
The campaign successfully catalyzed monumental consumer interest and managed to convert early interest into record-breaking, high-value reservations.
- Record Reservation Rate: The optimized digital funnels and persuasive copy contributed directly to achieving 200,000 reservations in the first nine months, leading Ford to double its production capacity targets.
- High-Value Lead Quality: The utility-focused content strategy delivered a 38% higher lead-to-reservation conversion rate from targeted LinkedIn and YouTube ads (targeting commercial buyers) compared to general audience social media traffic.
- Launch Day Stability: The integrated funnel design successfully managed a massive influx of over 1.2 million website visits on the launch day announcement without system failure, ensuring all high-value traffic was funneled directly to the reservation page.
- Efficient Cost Per Reservation (CPR): Through continuous optimization of ad creatives (focusing on torque and battery life specs), we reduced the average Cost Per Reservation (CPR) by 18% in the initial three months of the campaign, optimizing the overall media spend efficiency.
