This is quite a debut by AMV BBDO for Ford, a watery reveal of its best-selling Ranger pickup truck, shot in a lake in Romania by Adam Berg of Smuggler.
Apparently this machine can handle 800mm of water at four mph, which I guess is useful with the world (UK anyway) currently battered by a succession of storms. Water has traditionally played well for AMV of course, think Guinness ‘Surfer.’ This is ‘Night Swimmer.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOTXGyK43O0
Ford of Europe director of marketing Peter Zillig says: “Ford Ranger is the no.1 selling pickup truck in Europe because, as a product, it stands head and shoulders above competitors. Our strategy was to create a campaign that would outperform typical pickup truck advertising. The outcome is a stunning demonstration of the Ranger’s class-leading wading depth, just one of the capabilities that make it THE pickup”.
AMV writer and Deputy ECD Martin Loraine says: “The convention for pickups is to show rough terrain and tough loads, but Ranger has the best wading depth in the category. Showing it driving through deep water felt right creatively but also makes it stand apart from other pickups.”
Ford moved its above-the-line business out of WPP into a combo of BBDO and Wieden+Kennedy in the US in late 2018. so far W+K has done most of the heavy lifting there with its patriotic ‘Built. Ford. Proud’ campaign. Be interesting to see what AMV (if it gets the gig) comes up with for non-pickups in the UK. Back in the day the then Abbott Mead Vickers made its name advertising Volvo.
This one? Not entirely sure water’s the way to go but full marks for trying something different in a pretty moribund auto sector.
MAA creative scale: 7.
