In this edition: We look into the kind of brand health data that might have informed Ford's first new global brand platform in over a decade.
Ford is gearing up to “Ready Set Ford” (their words, not mine) with a new brand platform created by Wieden + Kennedy. It’s not quite as genre-defying as the futuristic neon bomb that Jaguar dropped on us earlier this year in an attempt to appeal to younger audiences – Ready Set Ford feels more reminiscent of a lifestyle Nike ad – but the motivation is more or less the same. Speaking to ADWEEK, the global executive strategy director of Wieden + Kennedy said that although people knew and respected Ford, the brand was in need of “modernization”.
The first ad coming out of this brand platform (which you can watch here) is a mish-mash of its motorsports background and people whoo-hooing while enjoying some intergenerational herding in cowboy hats. Apparently, this new platform was built off the back of brand health data (direct quote from the article, btw, not just me being a corporate shill for brand health) which showed them where the messaging needed to go in order to grow.
Tracksuit is tracking Ford’s brand health data, too, so I took a look at what’s going on under the hood (ha ha), from June ‘25 to August ‘25 in the USA.
To set the scene: Ford is converting slower down the funnel than its competitors. Compared to Toyota, who is the category leader in New Cars, Ford enjoys the same level of Awareness (85%), but Consideration is much lower (30% vs Toyota’s 49%). This leads down to a huge gap in Preference, where Ford only enjoys 9% Preference vs Toyota’s 21% Preference.
When it comes to messaging, the number one unique association that came through with Ford is that it’s American: strong, classic, traditional, patriotic, and tough. Ford’s marketing team might be seeing this as something they need to shift if they want to appeal to younger generations. While these aren’t necessarily bad associations, this new and more emotionally resonant, lifestyle approach reads less “patriotic” and more “aspirational”, less “tradition” and more “passion” orientated.
However, our Statements data also shows that Ford is actually doing pretty well among 18-34 year olds, ranking third highest in the category for “Really stands for something” and fourth for “Is for people like me”. They do, however, lag behind in “Is a brand I trust”, where only 31% of aware consumers in that age group associate Ford with this statement, compared to the 54% of consumers who associate Toyota with trust. They’re also near the bottom of the category for “Is on the way up”, suggesting that consumers aren’t necessarily looking to Ford for anything new or interesting.
Ford’s chief marketing officer told ADWEEK that they want this new brand platform to “signal for both existing loyalists and maybe those who haven’t considered Ford that there’s something fun and exciting going on at Ford, and they should check us out.” So they’re obviously wanting to change the perception that they're not doing anything new.
Either way, here’s my conclusion: taking a big swing and launching a big campaign should be guided by brand health data. And that is the corporate shill in me talking.
P.S. Have you seen that we're doing a webinar next week with skincare and cosmetic brands REFY and BYOMA, all about how challenger brands can thrive against legacy players in competitive categories? Join us and grab your spot now.
Canada:Owala is seeing sustainable growth in the Reusable Drinkware category. From Sep’24 to Aug’25, awareness has continued to flow, bubbling up from 12% to 16%. Consideration has also been refilled, spilling over by 3-percentage-points to 11%.
7% ⬆️
Australia:Dymocks is writing its own story in the Book Retailer category. Awareness has turned the page from Sep’24 to Aug’25 with a 7-percentage-point lift, now at 79%. Consideration has also flipped ahead, leafing forward from 53% to 59%.
Essential reading
👟 Of course, the big story of this week is that Nike put out a new slogan, inverting “Just Do It” to “Why Do It?” Not unexpectedly, Mark Ritson has an opinion about it, which you can read here. Essentially, though he questions the demographic generalisation of Gen Z (are they really all riddled with anxiety?), he basically concludes that Nike knows what it's doing. And has earned it.
👗 There are many sources of information I dip into when it comes time to pen this newsletter, but I often like to check out The Drum’s Ad of the Day, which highlights one campaign per day – a digestible amount in a landscape constantly pinging shiny new things at you at speed. My favourite of the last week was Depop’s new campaign.
😎 Ray Ban embraces Korean pop culture for new campaign: there probably isn’t a single soul reading this newsletter that hasn’t heard of K-Pop Demon Hunters, the most-watched movie of all time on Netflix, and a cross-cultural phenomenon that comes at around the same time as K-Popped, the Western x Korean crossover that saw acts like Megan the Stallion pair up with k-pop groups like Billie. Brands will only continue to tap in.
