Automotive marketing is notoriously tricky to master. A new global platform from Ford shuns category conventions to get to the heart of the brand and bring the carmaker to life through more than just its product offering. 

The ‘Ready Set Ford’ global platform is relaunching Ford in 19 territories. It focuses on the brand as not just a carmaker but a maker of tools that facilitate experience and enable people to do the things they love.

As part of the platform, three new campaigns from Wieden+Kennedy London spotlight key parts of the brand: thrill, build and adventure. The three campaigns are all born from the overarching concept ‘capability in motion’.

The first of the three executions is inspired by Ford’s 100-year heritage in racing. The cinematic spot titled ‘Born to Compete’ shows four children racing tyres down sand dunes. Directed by Aoife McArdle and shot by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Adolpho Veloso, the film shows the movement of the wheels in a stripped-back form against the dramatic desert backdrop. As the tyres gather speed, the play is transformed into a speeding car showing its ability to race.

The story is rooted in history, inspired by the fact that Ford was created off the back of a race. Henry Ford’s 1901 Sweepstakes win secured the backing to launch the company, sparking a 125-year racing legacy across disciplines and terrains.

The striking film embodies the scale of the brand and how far it has come. Soundtracked by  “Memoria” by Rosalía and Carminho, the film acts as a brand story.

The ‘build’ and ‘adventure’ campaign executions are titled ‘Mornings. Made Possible By Doers’ and ‘Made To Take It’. The films hone in on more specific brand areas to give context, whilst also embodying Ford’s overarching ethos in enabling users to achieve their goals.

‘Made To Take It’ is rooted in adventure and shows Ford in motion in an array of settings, including dense forests, rough terrain and shifting conditions. The brand’s Explorer, Kuga, Ranger, Bronco and Transit Nugget models are shown to enable journeys anywhere, tested to their limits. The film builds on 2024’s Charge Around The Globe, which saw the all-electric Explorer complete a record-setting global journey.

‘Mornings. Made Possible By Doers’ is the ‘build’ campaign. It shows Ford’s leadership position in commercial vehicles and celebrates the workers who keep Europe moving. Showing the early mornings and late nights, the film shows the E-Transit Custom, E-Transit Courier, Ranger PHEV and E-Transit Ford vehicles not as the hero but as the trusted companion of the people getting the job done. 

Both campaigns were directed by Lopé Serrano and focus on visual storytelling through contrasts of light and shadow to create striking compositions. 

“We’ve organised the brand around capability and expressed that through three distinct domains: Build, Adventure and Thrill, because that reflects how people actually use Ford. It’s not just a communications idea, it’s shaping how we think about product and experience too,” explained Pete Zillig, Marketing Director, Ford Europe.

He continued: “Together the three campaigns reflect the breadth of Ford in Europe today, and our focus on building vehicles people can rely on to go further, do more, and keep moving forward.”

The campaigns will run across Europe, launching first in the UK before rolling out across other markets on the continent. The campaigns span hero films, product cutdowns, social content and high-impact out-of-home.

“Whether the story is about racing, work or exploring the great outdoors, each film encapsulates the confidence of Ford DNA through bold, confident film-making in its own way,” added Alex Sattlecker and Lucas Reis, Creative Directors at Wieden+Kennedy London.

Distilling the brand into three distinctive stories, the campaigns bring Ford to life as more than a car maker. Building on the power of narrative and emotion to connect with audiences, the Ready Set Ford platform rips up the automotive marketing rule book and recognises the importance of brand to create genre-defining work.