By Juan Saucedo
Daily Titan Staff Writer

Communications major Courtney Force poses with her first trophy from a national competition, held in Seattle, Wash. Force is participating in the Fiesta Movement, from May until December, in which 100 people each drive their own 2010 Ford Fiesta. Photo courtesy Ford Motor Company.

There aren’t many experiences that satisfy Cal State Fullerton student Courtney Force more than speeding down the track in a dragster going 270 miles an hour.

Yet earlier this year, Force, the 21-year-old daughter of legendary drag racer John Force, discovered that she could also derive satisfaction from a totally different automotive experience.

In May, Force was one of 100 individuals nationwide participating in the Ford Fiesta Movement, a marketing campaign by the Ford Motor Company to promote the launching of the 2010 Ford Fiesta to a young Web-savvy generation by using popular social networking sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Flickr and Twitter.

“Being part of the Fiesta Movement is all about getting the word out,” said Force, a communications major with an emphasis in entertainment studies.

Force said she submitted a video via YouTube and that she was surprised when she received a call from Ford management.

Ford’s Experiential Marketing Manager, Jeff Eggen, said Force was selected from among more than 4,000 people who applied to test drive the car before its launching next year.

“We selected people who already had an established presence online,” Eggen said. “These are people who already had a network and who have visibility online through social media.”

The participants, which are called “agents,” had the opportunity to spend six months behind the wheel of a European-spec Ford Fiesta. During this period, they completed monthly missions and shared their experiences with their followers on the Web, Eggen said.

Each agent received a different mission that coincided with an overall theme for a specific month.
The six themes were travel, adventure, social activism, technology, style and design, and entertainment.

“We’re trying to build awareness of the Fiesta far in advance to the vehicle’s release in the U.S.,” Eggen said. “It’s about building awareness in a different way, a way that breaks through our target customers who are young. These are people who are in their teens, twenties and thirties.”

Eggen said a lot of people who are the target customers do not spend a great deal of time with traditional media such as newspapers, radio and television, so it’s essential to reach them through the Internet.

The Fiesta, which is part of Ford’s line of subcompact vehicles, is being launched to compete with other subcompact cars in the market.

Force, who has been drag racing since she was 16 years old, said she had to learn to drive stick shift before jumping into the driver seat of the car.

Once she learned to drive standard vehicles during an unveiling and training in Venice Beach, Force said she had an incredible time driving the black Fiesta that was issued to her.

“I’ve taken the Fiesta all the way to Sonoma and down to Santa Monica,” she said. “It has great gas mileage.”

She said she likes the interior of the car but the features are even better because it has voice command capabilities.

“You can hit a button and tell it to turn the air up or turn the heat up,” Force said.

Although she enjoyed all the missions, she said her favorite mission came in July during the style and design theme.

For the mission, she had to decorate a friend’s apartment or office in a Feng Shui theme in an attempt to see if it brought that person good fortune.

Force decided to decorate a teammate’s race car trailer in order to bring him good luck.

After the mission, Force was the one who received the good fortune. She picked up her first national event win in a competition held in Seattle, Wash., and was then interviewed on ESPN regarding the victory and her involvement with the Fiesta Movement.

“The Ford Fiesta had definitely brought me good luck,” Force said.

Elise Miller, the Global Cars communication coordinator for Ford, said Force’s personality has made her one of the better participants.

“We’re very happy,” she said. “Courtney has been a great Fiesta Movement agent.”

She said the agents will return the vehicles to Ford at the beginning of the LA Auto Show, which will be held from Dec. 4 – 13.

At the moment, Miller believes the marketing campaign has been successful at getting the word out about the car to people on the Web.

“We’re really hoping that more things like this could be done in the future,” she said.

All up-to-date videos that document the agents’ adventures can be seen on YouTube or at FiestaMovement.com.