PREMiERdrum Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKAQG2Z4MUE&feature=player_embedded It was only last week that we asked, "Has Ford's Focus Spokespuppet Doug Jumped the Shark?" Turns out, he has jumped ship entirely. Ford has decided to shelve Doug, the orange spokespuppet for the Focus, after a six-month run that did wonders for consumer interest in the car, exceeding the company's initial expectations. Brandchannel has learned that the denouement of Doug's story will be told on Thursday with the release of the last new video in a series of many. Ford released the penultimate chapter today, a Doug-less video that featured only "John," the human handler for the smart-alecky mascot, bemoaning the departure of his friend after Doug drove off himself in a 2012 Focus. "The video today tipped it off," Scott Monty, Ford's head of social media, told brandchannel. "Tomorrow we'll have the concluding video." Doug is being retired from active duty as a branded entertainment experiment for the brand, after a phenomenal run of webisodes. Ford targeted the generation of 10,000 Facebook fans for Doug; he now has 43,000. According to Monty, people have engaged with Doug on Facebook at a rate three times greater than for the vehicle itself. About 40 percent of online "conversation" about Focus has been about Doug. LINK - BrandChannel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark B. Morrow Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 At least they ended it with a final video. I'll miss Doug. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 Speaking of GM's advertising missteps - let's compare Doug to a recent GM campaign: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTwannabe Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 Speaking of GM's advertising missteps - let's compare Doug to a recent GM campaign: Patrick Warburton is doing Honda ads now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moosetang Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 Patrick Warburton is doing Honda ads now. Which means, unlike the GM ads, somebody has actually seen them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2b2 Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 (edited) At least they ended it with a final video. I'll miss Doug. I WON'T (actually "wouldn't" - this is prolley just more cr@p) I've pretty much boycotted all Focus Media since the puppet junk started Edited September 29, 2011 by 2b2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmm55 Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 I thought it was funny. Good job Doug! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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