eric rochow : social media handyman

Its not every day you get a call from Julia Roy of Undercurrent asking if you’d be interested in having a new Ford Fiesta for 6 months, free gas and insurance.

But that’s what happened.

Wow.

Ford asked that I make a video about why I would like a car for the summer, so in true Gardenfork fashion here’s what i did. Get one of the Labs, sit on the stoop, talk for a bit, show video clips of the Labs and the show.

Evidently, one of the execs at Ford likes Yellow Labradors, so I was given the green light to become part of the Fiestamovement.

Charlie, Henry, and the Gardenfork Ford Fiesta

Before signing on to this deal, I did some research on the car, as I wouldn’t say yes to just any deal with anyone. “Down to earth” is the most used phrase to describe me on Gardenfork, ( see the iTunes reviews here ) and I wanted to make sure this is something I really wanted to do. Ford Motor is a natural for me, I was raised on Fords.

My first car was a 1949 Ford F1 that my dad bought my brother and I , it was in pieces, we rebuilt it.

I currently drive an 82 Ford F150

I had drinks with Mark Fields, President of Ford North America, while checking out the Ford Fiesta in NYC before I signed on with Ford.

Here Sam De La Garza, Ford’s Fiesta brand manager, and Judy Gnant, Internet Influencer check out the car at our NYC Fiesta Tweetup.

In addition to meeting Mark Fields and Sam De La Garza, brand manager for the Fiesta, I met Scott Monty, who is now head of social media for Ford. I met Scott at Podcamp Boston a few years back. Seeing that Scott had a hand in running this program made me realize this was going to be good and it also sunk in that this was a pretty amazing social media campaign for a large multi-national company like Ford to undertake.

Many social media campaigns are, to me, pretty much window dressing. Lots of companies are shouting, “Hey, we’re on Twitter!”, or “Let’s make a viral video!” and that’s about it. The Fiestamovement was going to be different, and very big. neat.

I asked Ford what they wanted me to do with the car, and their answer was “use it in your life.” So I have.

Though I like compare myself to Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs and Alton Brown of Good Eats, I still have a day job doing handyman and painting work, and the Fiesta is my truck. ( You can fit eight foot long 2×4s in the Fiesta, BTW)

No surprise, but tons of people know about the Fiestamovement. A client was helping me take tools to the car, and when he see the Fiesta, I get the surprise look. “How did you get one of these?” Proof positive that the Fiestamovement is more well known than Gardenfork…

The Fiestamovement is being managed for Ford by Action Marketing Group, a bunch of hard working people from Colorado who have done a really good job managing 100 blogger web video types, which is no easy task.

The Fiestamovement has gotten a lot of press just for the sheer audacity of it. Give 100 social media types a brand new car, with few restrictions.  Some pundits have said from the get-go, “What will they do when something goes wrong?”  Well, I’m on the inside, and I haven’t seen anything go wrong yet.

I’ve seen many things go right.

People have different reasons for participating in this. Everyone who was chosen has some sort of presence on the web, many of them with huge followings on Twitter or Flickr or YouTube.

Then there’s me. I’m not an internet superstar, I call myself a D-list internet celebrity. Though I did get recognized at my neighbor’s potluck dinner last night. “You’re the guy in the videos!”

But everyone chosen is what I call an Internet Influencer. My pitch to Ford was that while my audience may not be the exact demographic fit for the Ford Fiesta – I think i’m the oldest person with one of the cars – the people who watch Gardenfork and Real World Green make the buying decisions for those kids who want a Ford Fiesta.

Jill Hanner is one of the Fiesta Agents whose show is a perfect fit for getting the word out about Ford’s New Fiesta

Grace Piper, Jake Bronstein, and Sarah Austin, all Fiesta drivers + internet influencers at a recent Fiesta event at God’s Love We Deliver.

Sarah Austin’s (www.Pop17.com) Ford Fiesta

So far, the Fiestamovement has gone great for me. I’ve never had a brand new car before, and when I drive it around NYC, it gets noticed. Many just stare at it, some come up and ask questions. I have Fiesta biz cards that I leave on the windshield when its parked for people to get more info.

One person walked up to me in my neighborhood, Park Slope, and says “I’ve seen you and your car for a few weeks now, been checking it out.”

Another runs up to me at a stoplight and yells, “How did you get this car?, I’m buying more stock in Ford!”

Many of the people who talk to me bring up the fact that Ford did not take bailout money from the government, and they are glad to see Ford making a European style car.

Almost everyone wants to know the cost of the car, which hasn’t been set yet for the U.S. Market, I’m pretty sure.

I get a lot of suprise looks, as the car looks very European, and people are surprised to find out its a Ford. On the highway, I get a lot of Hondas and Toyotas pulling up along side, then they linger while checking out the car.

How the Fiesta fits in with Gardenfork

The Internet Influencers who were given a car all have different reasons for wanting a Fiesta. I look at this as a major international brand partnering with Gardenfork. [ Gardenfork is the 3rd most popular cooking show on iTunes ] To me its an integrated marketing project. ‘Here’s a Ford Fiesta Eric, go use it in your shows”

Which is exactly what I’ve done.

still frames from the Ikea Hack Salmon Smoker episode

The viewers of Gardenfork and Real World Green expect advertising. Quite a few people have emailed me to say, “we need to get you some advertisers”.  And a number have pitched the companies they work for to sponsor the show. Its amazing and humbling that people like the shows that much and want to help me succeed with them.

A recent email from a viewer went like this: “OK,  Eric, you’ve got Ford on board, when is the TV and Book deal?”

When I first got the car I went a bit overboard with talking about the car, especially on Twitter, using the #fiestamovement hashtag. It got to the point where close friends said, “I’ve hidden your profile from my newsfeed on Facebook” ( my Twitter account is plugged into my Facebook page )

I was and still am real excited about the car and the campaign. Now I am a bit more measured with the Twitter posts. When I post about the Fiesta, its either a picture of it in a neat place, or a note about some feature, especially the gas mileage, which is quite good ( about 35 mpg mix of city-hwy for me ). When I do talk about it, the tweet or post has substance to it.

I’ve found the Ford  Fiesta to be a great car. I compare it to the Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris. The interior is much warmer, the edges not as hard. And it definitely has a European feel to it, one would expect to see a Volvo logo on the hood, and then you realize its a Ford.

So that’s the Eric Ford Fiesta Story so far, you can check out my profile on the Fiesta Movement site, and i’ll be back to post some follow-ups here soon.