I never thought, after getting on for 30 years covering the autobiz, I’d see a ‘teaser’ PR campaign for a new line of one-tonne pickup trucks. Once upon a time, the automakers kept as quiet as possible about their new models, at least on the record, and, come announcement time, snail-mailed out a press pack with neatly printed prose on A4 paper and a selection of photos. Then there was a drive day for the local media and that was that, job done.
Fast forward to 2010 and we get it every which way. Teaser shots on the press websites with links from Twitter, whole Facebook pages devoted to the upcoming new model, country-wide pre-launch consumer drive programmes (Ford Fiesta in the US, for example), with every turn of the wheel blogged, tweeted, emailed and Facebooked. and now to as wide an audience as possible, including, rather than via, the traditional media.
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Toyota GB used Twitter more to communicate with UK media than any other means during the lead-up to the ‘sticky accelerator’ recall campaign and I long ago lost count of how many emailed press releases, etc, it took Kia Europe to actually provide all the details of the then-new Soul. Count up recent Tweets about a new model and Nissan GB is undisputed leader, in the build up to the Leaf EV. Fings ain’t what they yoostabe, and nor should they. I can’t imagine going back to the typewriter, phone booth and fax that were the tools de jour when I started in this game…
I was reminded of all this when Ford a week or three back, released a teaser pic of the new Ranger truck’s nose, with some resemblance, surely uncoincidental, to that of sundry current North American Ford models – and little else. Next, ahead of this significant global model’s public debut at the Sydney motor show today, local media got no less than CEO Alan Mulally on the record hinting the vast spread of the new Ranger ute could see it overtake the company’s larger F150 pick-up range that’s largely confined to the American market where it once sold more than 1m a year.
Late yesterday, the Ford PR machine kicked into gear globally and a ‘Europeanised’ press release – lots of detail and pix – pinged into the just-auto inbox. So we now know the new Fordza truck line – Ranger and BT-50 – will also be built in Argentina and South Africa (also a source of Ford’s Focus and Toyota’s rival Hilux) as well as Thailand, that one of the two new diesels comes from Ford’s Dagenham diesel centre here in England and that the Ford line will include a double-cab option. What we weren’t told was the bit I wanted confirmed – sales in North America for the first time, in place of the aeons-old current US-built line. But this is the era of the drip-feed product launch and, no doubt, we’ll be told soon enough.
Having long tracked Ford-Mazda product cooperation – the 323/Laser, 626/Telstar and B1600/Courier were staple showroom stock across Asia-Pacific in the ’80s and ’90s and, except in Japan, the Fords always outsold the Mazdas due to the blue oval’s wider assembly plant and dealership reach – I was intrigued at Mazda’s approach. Nothing on their Japanese website, but we were emailed an Australian release that said things like “We wanted to design a truck that car lovers would be deeply pleased with and proud to own. We targeted a unique and expressive design that people would find desirable, and we also wanted it to be seen as strong and dependable. This led us to define the design concept as a ‘Sophisticated Beast’.”
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By GlobalDataI’ll spare you the rest of the remaining bumpf. Not a word about the specifications, and this for the first in what must be five generations by now to be quite different inside and out from its Ford twin.
Ford and Mazda are not alone. I already mentioned Kia and, in the last few months, we’ve had New Chrysler doing likewise, tweeting links in carefully measured steps about key new models and releasing a few more photos every time; it was the new 200 – nee Sebring – this week. Maybe the idea is to get more bang for the PR buck – ie more stories about the same new model – and the consumer guys seem willing to play ball but I just wish they’d get on with it and give us all the detail and be done with it.
In other news this week, it looks like VW and GAZ are moving closer to some sort of cooperation, BMW announced plans for a big boost in Spartanburg (SUV) output, Porsche posted a lower loss than expected, Vauxhall’s Corsa trumped Fiat’s 500 for a big British driving school fleet contract and Nissan previewed – those ‘teaser’ launches again – its next new V platform model.
Have a nice weekend.
Graeme Roberts
Deputy/News Editor
just-auto.com
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