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Who is Antonella? (or 8000 car dealer let loose in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities looking for a mystery brunette.)

How do you inspire and engage a group of cynical car dealers, who ‘rightly’ claim to know their customers and know their job better than any Trainer or Brand Manager.

A group that have attended car launches before, often for a number of different manufacturers, who have sat in class rooms, listened to lectures, read the training binder and downloaded the e-learning.

With today’s alternatives to face-to-face dialogue / training (video conferencing, threaded online conversation, CD-Rom interactives and e-learning) continue to get better and better, the standard and expectation for a memorable experience has changed.

With the FiestaNow event in Barcelona, we had the opportunity to communicate a different story… and to host the dealers in a different way – to reflect new Fiesta and it’s new generation of sociable tech savvy customers.

With ‘FiestaNow’, we had the opportunity to host the dealers in a different way and to communicate a different and original story, reflecting new Fiesta, its new customers… and a new Ford.

Indeed, our focus on the customer’s emotional response to the car and decision for buying became a key driver for the event’s tone and content.

This was brought to life from the moment of arrival, when delegates were coached to a central Barcelona location to discover new Fiesta in real life surroundings, relevant to our target customer.

To build on this surprising, different and confident start to the event, the dealers were then given the keys and set free to explore the car and the city, with a 90min drive route that included local landmarks, static Fiestas parked by customer touchpoints (clubs, shops, cinemas, gyms, restaurants, etc.), banners and poster sites.

The in-car SatNav ensured that everyone was able to find their way to the main hotel, in good time for the traditional ‘opening presentation’ which – in reality – was replaced by an informal welcome from the MD of each market who avoided the temptation to communicate ‘key messages’.

On Day Two, the breakfast briefing provided the dealers with an official introduction to the day ahead (what we’ll do, where we’ll go and what we need to achieve). Everyone was given mobile phones and encouraged to text their thoughts about the car, twitter-style, back to base.

In addition, they were also shown how to take photos of the car and their experience and send to flickr. Both the tweets and images were displayed during the day, and as part of the wrap-up session, which enabled us to ensure delegates were able to contribute towards the event agenda.

The day was then split into two halves – drive experiences and workshops.

New Fiesta and key competition drive evaluations focused on design and technology features, with delegates encouraged to access music and messages (recorded on specially created USB sticks) using the car’s USB slot.

In parallel to the drive experiences, delegates took part in a linear programme of workshops, which (unlike traditional breakouts, defined by logistics and delegate rotations), told a story which painted a picture of the customer, the car, technology and marketing campaign to show how all elements are inextricably linked. Dealers, for example, were given the chance to build their own customer profile using a specially-designed ‘drag and drop’ app to bring the target customer’s preferences to life.

All 100 delegates then shared their findings, reviewed the customer profiles projected, their perceptions of the Ford brand and learnt more about the marketing plans for the new Fiesta, enabling them to put the event into context.

Finally, our ‘wrap up session’ summarised the key messages and provided an opportunity to deliver an uplifting conclusion to the event with a ‘Spirit of Now’ prize given for the best picture taken throughout the day.