Tuesday, Jul. 14, 2009

Life's a Fiesta: Ford taps 4 metro-east pals to promote car

The year 2009 is little more than half over, but a small group of friends already is driving around the St. Louis area in a 2011 car.

Four guys from the Belleville area are among 100 groups of people who got 2011 Ford Fiestas for a viral marketing campaign to introduce the global car to America before the formal rollout.

The guys call themselves the Wisest Wizards on their videos, which are collected at their Web site, www.wisestwizards.com.

The videos started out as a way to have fun, but now they have gotten the guys a nonpaying but fun gig as viral marketers, spreading the word on the new car by word of mouth, friend-to-friend demonstrations and videos made on assignment from the company. They also blog on Facebook, write on Twitter and post pictures on Flicker.

Mike Renner, Doug Jones, Jordan May and Ryan Sy range in age from 24 to 30. Renner and Jones share a house in Fairview Heights. May and Sy live in Belleville.

Renner said the guys used to just get together Tuesday nights, but Sy suggested they start making videos to entertain themselves.

They have a good following on YouTube -- 434 subscribers, which is enough to begin advertising on their site.

Renner said May also is the guy you don't see on screen because he always does the filming, the editing and other production.

The guys heard about the Ford promotion earlier this year and submitted a video to qualify. Renner said Ford chose them to help promote the car, which won't even be available in the United States until next year.

"We picked up the car at the end of April in Chicago," he said.

While there, they were wined, dined and trained in operating and promoting the car.

They have named the car Delores because she has a voice response system, and they fell in love with it.

"Every month they send us on missions," Renner said. "We get free gas. We've also got a camera to film everything and some T-shirts and new running shoes."

So far they have put about 6,000 miles on the new car just driving around the area, showing it off, having fast food and going to movies.

They tried to celebrate Memorial Day by being in the Belleville parade, but it was canceled. They made it to a Cinco de Mayo party and have had a couple of parties to introduce friends and relatives to the car.

They are planning a road trip to New York in September.

You also can see their and other video efforts at the car's Web site, www.fiestamovement.com.

The group is supposed to have the car until the end of October, Renner said.

"Actually, we weren't told how to get rid of it," he said. "We're hoping they'll say just keep it. But I doubt it."