Ford looks to video game industry for marketing tips

Car manufacturer Ford is looking to the video game industry for marketing ideas, according to the auto company's chief of marketing, Jim Farley.

Ad Age reports that Ford is embracing the pre-launch marketing that video game publishers have been doing for years. Farley believes that the video game hype machine that builds anticipation for certain games months or sometimes years out from launch can be effectively used to foster excitement for Ford's cars.

Autoblog cites the Ford Fiesta Movement as an example of the company employing the video game marketing approach. The company built buzz ahead of the Fiesta's launch, teasing the car on social media and giving away Fiestas to 100 "social media ninjas" to build excitement around the car's launch.

Farley calls this type of marketing the "slow-burn approach", which is similar to video game marketing where a significant portion of the marketing occurs well before the product's launch. Ford has now committed 20 percent of its marketing budget to pre-launch projects.