At the Geneva Motor Show 2016, the Ford Vignale choir, comprised of employees, launched the new Vignale luxury line in Europe. European vice president of communications at Ford, Mark Truby, talks engagement, live events and passion for the Ford brand

What was your mission?

About a year ago, we started communicating with the Vignale strategy, which is basically a much more premium, upmarket Ford line with both a premium product and customer experience. We had launched one vehicle under the line and, at the Geneva Motor Show, we were unveiling, three more Vignale vehicles, giving us much more of a full line. It was an important moment for us to bring attention to what we are doing.

What were your challenges?

One of the challenges we had was to communicate our passion for the project, our seriousness and our commitment to it. There have been other mass market car brands in Europe that have tried to go upmarket, and didn’t stick with it – or for whatever reason they tried it for a while and gave up. We were thinking, ‘How do we show how much passion there is, and how committed we are and the resources and creative energy we’ve put into it?’ That’s where the idea sprung from, wanting to do something emotional and engaging that also could show how much passion we were putting into the initiative.

How did you involve employees in the initiative?

In most cases, you don’t see that the premium feel comes from within, you don’t get to see the people. In this case, we thought that it was important for people to have a feel for the people behind the Vignale.

This isn’t just a car company that’s decided to try a luxury label, this involves a lot of talented people, a lot of really committed people. At the same time, we don’t like to do boring press conferences and motor shows where you just have a talking suit. We like to try to create a memorable moment, because all of our employees across Europe, in all of our dealerships, watch it via webcast or replay.

How was the choir concept realised?

I was nervous about it because it was an unorthodox idea. Going into it, I thought, ‘It’s either going to be great or it’s going to be cringey.’ I wasn’t sure – but I liked the idea that we were trying something different. Then, when we put out the message that if you wanted to be part of the choir you had to send an audition tape, we had well over 100 people send in tapes – and they were really creatively done. It was not so different from some of the audition tapes you see if you watch Pop Idol or X Factor. I was excited about that level of interest. We did the practising by Skype, then we brought the choir together the day before the show in Geneva. There was just so much energy, they were having the time of their life and it was just really infectious. To see that group of people come together, who didn’t necessarily all know each other before but who were all working on a joint project, it really came through, it really worked, it wasn’t cheesy at all, it was actually quite moving and fun and everybody loved it.

Why did it work?

For once, our people got to be the star of the show. I think it brought the team together. I got a call from our CEO Mark Fields, he watched the live streaming and said, ‘I loved that, it really felt like the brand,’ because we’re a family-oriented company.

Who was the intended audience?

The live audience was probably journalists, employees and dealers. We never intended it to be a standalone viral, but it works as a way of communicating how much we care about this and how much effort and passion is going into it.

Why was the Geneva Motor Show choir a good fit for the Ford brand?

Motor shows are great in a certain way; but to stand out from the crowd, you have to try to figure out what’s authentic to your brand. For Ford, being a company that’s been family-owned for more than 110 years, doing things for our employees seems to be a good fit. Is there a way to build upon these kinds of initiatives and make that idea a bit more of our signature? Rather than bring in a celebrity or do something in the middle of Piccadilly Circus or Times Square, we will try to be a bit more authentic to our brand.