Ford Drives Consumer Interest in All-New Taurus with Mobile Posse

MCLEAN, Va., Feb. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobile Posse is helping Ford Motor Company to drive consumer interest in its all-new 2010 Ford Taurus.  During November and December 2009, Ford ran a national campaign promoting the launch of the redesigned Taurus to Mobile Posse's opted-in base of mobile consumers.  

Ford's mobile idle screen advertising campaign was designed to spur consumer awareness and interest in the new Ford Taurus sedan.  Full-color, full-screen creative showcased the exterior design of the vehicle and highlighted select engineering and interior features, including the available 365-HP Ecoboost V6 engine, radar-enabled technologies, and massaging seats.  Average CTR for the campaign was 20%.  Nearly half of Mobile Posse's unique users clicked on a Ford ad during the campaign.

"The all-new Taurus is the most innovative full-size sedan on the road today and the rapid growth of Smartphone customers provided the perfect opportunity to unite innovation with the innovative," said Lew Echlin, Ford National Marketing Communications Manager.  "The mobile medium is a perfect forum to showcase Taurus' leadership in design, fuel-efficient EcoBoost power, and radar technology, which made the graphic-rich Mobile Posse platform a wide stage to provide our customers with demonstrations and a call to action, ideal for our flagship."

The campaign was the first by an automotive manufacturer to include Mobile Posse's idle screen "click-to-mobile web" functionality, which enables consumers to launch a complementary mobile website with a single click.  After viewing the Ford Taurus ad, Mobile Posse users were invited to visit Ford's mobile website to find a local dealer.  Nearly 20 percent of users that viewed a "click-to-mobile web" ad elected to view the site.

"With the launch of the 2010 Ford Taurus, we needed to effectively reach the vehicle's target market via the mobile device in a way that complimented our existing mobile initiatives, and our traditional media buys," said Brian Bos, SVP, Convergence Director for Team Detroit, Ford's Agency. "With Mobile Posse, we were able to quickly develop an engaging and interactive mobile experience that connected with consumers outside of the mobile browser and delivered exceptional results for the client."

Mobile Posse's active idle screen solution proactively delivers graphical and interactive advertising to the most valuable real-estate on the mobile device – the idle screen.  Consumers opt-in to the free service to receive timely information and valued offers from national and regional brands.  Idle screen messages are delivered only when the phone is not in use, generating industry-leading consumer response and average double-digit CTRs.  

"We are thrilled to be a cornerstone of Ford's innovative launch campaign for the Taurus," said Jon Jackson, CEO of Mobile Posse. "The success of Ford's campaign underscores the ability of active idle screen advertising – and mobile advertising in general - to effectively elicit consumer response and to generate sales leads for high-dollar-value consumer goods."

Launched in 2007 and deployed with leading wireless carriers across the U.S., Mobile Posse now serves active idle screen advertising to more than 1 million mobile consumers in 210 DMAs every day.

About Mobile Posse

Mobile Posse, Inc. is the leading provider of next-generation mobile marketing and CRM solutions for the idle screen. Using proprietary patent-pending technology, Mobile Posse enables advertisers, content providers, and wireless carriers to proactively reach consumers through the prime real-estate on the mobile phone. The first company to commercially launch graphically-rich and interactive idle screen programming in North America, Mobile Posse delivers a superior experience for consumers and industry-leading results for marketers. Mobile Posse powers idle screen content and advertising delivery solutions for leading national and regional wireless carriers. Founded in 2005 and privately held, Mobile Posse is headquartered in McLean, VA. For more information about Mobile Posse, please visit www.mobileposse.com.

About Team Detroit

Team Detroit is a joint venture comprised of WPP's Detroit-based agencies, including JWT, Y&R, Wunderman, Ogilvy and Mindshare.

The WPP agencies restructured their service offerings in Detroit to provide best-in-class talent and more effective marketing partnerships to its client base, the largest of which is Ford Motor Company. The Team Detroit concept was devised to provide access to WPP's very best global marketing and communications talent in a seamless fashion.

This twenty-first century agency model provides clients with fully integrated customizable solutions, faster response and better interdisciplinary collaboration.

JWT-Team Detroit, Ogilvy-Team Detroit and Y&R-Team Detroit serve as the leading brand stewards, strategic partners, advertising creators and overall integrators of their clients marketing communications platforms.

Wunderman-Team Detroit, responsible for creating integrated brand experiences, unites and leverages the marketing expertise, insights and talents of the customer relationship management, direct, digital, experiential, and database and analytics.

Mindshare-Team Detroit is responsible for national and regional media planning, national buying, and media research for Ford, Lincoln and Mercury Divisions and the agencies nonautomotive clients.

In addition to the pooled brand experience and media resources, all of the Team Detroit agencies collaborate and share a number of other important agency services including creative production, studio services, traffic, finance, human resources, information technology, quality management systems and facilities management.

Team Detroit maintains 62 offices across the US and employs over 1,000 people.

About Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Mich., manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents. With about 200,000 employees and about 90 plants worldwide, the company's automotive brands include Ford, Lincoln, Mercury and Volvo. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. For more information regarding Ford's products, please visit www.ford.com.

SOURCE Mobile Posse, Inc.