Behind the Scenes of the Ford Fiesta Movement

Two weeks ago, myself and Alyssa Gar­dina were selected from an appli­ca­tion pool of over 1000 peo­ple to par­tic­i­pate in the Ford Fiesta Move­ment pro­gram, rep­re­sent­ing the city of Dal­las. I’ll explain the pro­gram in more detail if you’re inter­ested, but if you’re short on time — over the next four months, we’ll be count­ing on par­tic­i­pa­tion from you to make this pro­gram a suc­cess­ful one.

About the Fiesta Movement

If you’re not famil­iar with the move­ment, this will be the sec­ond chap­ter of the cam­paign. In Chap­ter One, Agents (as they’re referred to) were given Euro­pean Model Ford Fies­tas to drive for 7 months. They had to com­plete a vari­ety of chal­lenges and keep track of their adven­tures online.

The first edi­tion of the cam­paign was a huge suc­cess, result­ing in over 6,000 reser­va­tions (the car doesn’t actu­ally launch in the US until this Sum­mer), and thou­sands more who expressed inter­est in hear­ing more about the car when it launches.

In this sec­ond edi­tion, Agent teams will also be given Ford Fies­tas to drive, only the chal­lenges are slightly different.

Over the next four months, we’ll be exe­cut­ing chal­lenges that serve to bring the local com­mu­nity together and high­light each city’s unique artis­tic communities.

By exe­cut­ing these chal­lenges, teams are able to earn points (col­lected through event RSVPs, Foursquare check-​​ins, SMS inter­ac­tion, and more). The team that earns the most points by the end wins a pair of Ford Fies­tas. Pretty cool, espe­cially given that I’m in the mar­ket for a car!

About the Challenges

The chal­lenges are one of the most excit­ing aspects of the move­ment, and it’s some­thing every­one can have fun with.

Chal­lenge #1

For chal­lenge num­ber one, we have to work with a local artist to cre­ate a wall size mural of the ten best loca­tions in Dal­las that really show­case the cities spirit. The mural will be fea­tured in a promi­nent out­door loca­tion, and will also be reprinted in a major Dal­las pub­li­ca­tion. At the end of it all — we throw a rockin’ party.

If you have any ideas for loca­tions to fea­ture in the mural — by all means, leave them in the com­ments, or fill out our sur­vey!

Chal­lenge #2

Dal­las prob­a­bly isn’t known nation­ally for its music scene. When it comes to Texas cities and their music, we all know Austin usu­ally takes the cake. But Dal­las is home to some truly fan­tas­tic local music, and this is our chance to show­case it.

For this chal­lenge, we need to select three local musi­cians who could use a lit­tle expo­sure. At the end of the chal­lenge, we’ll throw a bat­tle of the bands style con­cert for this band — accom­pa­nied by pro­mo­tion over local media out­lets. The bands that are selected for this chal­lenge does have a chance to receive national expo­sure through the Fiesta Move­ment program.

Chal­lenge #3

It’s a mys­tery. You’ll know when we know!

Chal­lenge #4

Chal­lenge #4 is the one I’m most excited about. For this chal­lenge, we get to work with a local film­maker to cre­ate a short film that fea­tures the Fiesta. When the film’s done, we throw a pre­mier party. Given my pre­vi­ous life as an aspir­ing film­maker — I’m eager to get started on this one.

Flash Chal­lenges

In between the main chal­lenges, we’ll be given smaller Flash Chal­lenges to com­plete, giv­ing extra oppor­tu­ni­ties to earn points. For exam­ple, our first Flash Chal­lenge is to design a new graphic pat­tern for the Fiesta.

This is a Com­mu­nity Project

Since com­ing to Dal­las almost two years ago, we’ve learned that the Dal­las com­mu­nity has much more to offer then what is typ­i­cally asso­ci­ated with the city. This is our chance to show­case the real city of Dal­las, which is why we see this as a com­mu­nity project. Local artists involved in the mis­sions will have chances to receive expo­sure for them­selves and their work through the pro­gram. Peo­ple in other stats will get to learn more about the city of Dal­las, and we all get to have a great time.

If you think you might be inter­ested in help­ing out with one of the chal­lenges — let me know! Team Dal­las’ suc­cess will rely on the involve­ment and par­tic­i­pa­tion of the entire com­mu­nity. Feel free to con­tact me if you’re inter­ested. Oth­er­wise — stay tuned for more updates!

You can fol­low Team Dal­las by check­ing out our offi­cial Fiesta Move­ment page (you can do us a real favor by click­ing in the “fol­low us” but­ton there).

And oh yeah — I have a dis­claimer about all of this in my dis­clo­sures section.

Related posts:

1. [Who­ever Buys Us Pizza]‘s Jan­u­ary Tweetup — (It’s for @agardina’s Birthday)
2. Team CJ Is Headed to SXSW 2010!