When it comes to cars, the Ford Fiesta is considered one of the sexiest: It’s won a number of awards for its sleek design and stylish exterior. But the Fiesta is also packed with intuitive and innovative technological features, such as keyless entry and a rear-view camera — something the average consumer might not know. Ford wanted to change that. The solution? Ford leveraged the mobile photo-sharing app Instagram to launch “Fiestagram,” a six-week contest in which users throughout Europe could submit photos and win prizes.

The Basics

Ford launched the Fiestagram contest on October 10, each week announcing a new hashtag associated with one of the Fiesta’s high-tech features, such as #entry, #music and #hidden. People could then submit photos on Instagram, tagged with “#Fiestagram” and that week’s particular hashtag. Liberal interpretation of the hashtags was encouraged — #entry, for instance, inspired photographs of enchanting doorways, water fountains and sunrises. The best photos were selected to be featured in real-life galleries and digital billboards, and Ford gave weekly prizes to those submitting particularly striking images. The final prize was a Ford Fiesta.

Ford’s Goals

Prior to the contest, the Ford Fiesta was recognized in niche automotive press for its intuitive technological features, so that people contemplating car purchases would likely discover the Fiesta’s benefits during their research. But Ford wanted to extend awareness of these benefits to a wider audience, says Nicholas Oliver and Tom Gibby of Blue Hive, the London-based marketing firm that worked with Ford to execute the campaign. Specifically, Ford sought to bring attention to the Fiesta’s features among people in fashion, style and tech circles, so that the Fiesta would be top-of-mind when they became ready to buy a new vehicle to complement their busy, tech-intensive lives.

Why Instagram?

Mobile photography is on the rise, and the people in Ford’s target demographic — trendsetting fashion, style and tech mavens — are big users of Instagram, Oliver and Gibby explain. With its focus on imagery (as opposed to language), Instagram was the perfect platform to carry out a multinational campaign in which people across Europe, speaking a variety of languages, could participate. Plus, Instagram has a thriving and supportive community, which would be integral to driving user participation in the Fiestagram contest.

Results:

More than 16,000 photos were submitted to the Fiestagram contest, “ranging from surprising to challenging to beautiful,” according to the post-campaign update on the Ford Fiesta Facebook Page.

During the six-week campaign, Ford acquired more than 120,000 new Facebook fans across Europe, Oliver and Gibby say. Ford saw hundreds of thousands of visitors to the campaign hub on Facebook each week, many with particularly high dwell times, indicating that they were interested in browsing through the galleries of submissions.

Importantly, Ford successfully attracted the attention of its target demographic: fashion, style and technology trendsetters. On a daily basis, Fiestagram briefings and entries were featured on the “popular” page of Instagram, placing Ford’s name and the Fiesta’s technology front and center.