Not only does Ford serve fashion influencers, the agency has become a leading digital-age fashion influencer. The iconic modeling agency has successfully tapped into the marketing power of the Internet by creating videos featuring Ford models talking informally about style, shopping, working out, and hanging out backstage at fashion shows and shoots. These videos are turning up all over the web; hence, becoming the latest new media hit.
After dabbling with live casting videos, Ford knew they needed something more substantial to build the brand online. In 2006, Ford and Google made an agreement that Ford would begin supplying short videos featuring models in informal settings demonstrating beauty and shopping tips; Ford was guaranteed that YouTube would help promote the videos on its homepage and elsewhere. It was important that the videos portrayed the models in their natural state—when they weren’t posing or on the runway. It was revealed that a majority of the viewers of these videos range from preteens to women in their 40s—this could partially be due to the partnership with MySpace and iVillage. The online videos would provided online exposure and gave Ford a chance to build a fan base.
What is Ford selling? The answer is expertise. The models featured in the Ford videos are demonstrating the perfect hair curl, teaching women how to select the right top for black jeans, or explaining the importance of exfoliating your lips. Because of the video structure, viewers experience a more candid, intimate feel than when reading tips from a magazine or television show.
Ford Modeling Agency has transformed itself from a traditional modeling agency rooted in providing personnel to fashion-show runways, magazines, and mail-order catalogs into a hit new-media production company. Now the agency is begin contacted by advertising agencies, apparel manufacturers, and retailers whom share the eagerness to connect with consumers online. Since the venture into new media, Ford has experienced a 140 percent increase in revenue over the last five years.
Ford took what seemed like an unlikely candidate for viral video marketing and turned it into a gold mine!
Source:
Freedman, D. (2008). A Digital Makeover for the Modeling Business. Inc. Magazine, 30, 2, 82-86.
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