Ford Mustang vs. GM Camaro: Web Public Relations

Ford Mustang vs. GM Camaro: corporate blogs and web Public Relations

I'm constantly searching for corporate blogs that convey the excitement of the brand, or generate positive PR value for businesses. There are only some 20 blogs among the Fortune 500 companies. Most of the Fortune 500 companies seem out of touch with the good will that can be generated by blogs.

Two major companies that have business related blogs are Ford Motor and General Motors.
Ford's blog specifically focuses on the Mustang, GM is more of a car news site but recently (January) spotlighted their new Camaro concept car.

The Competitors:


A Ford engineer describes testing the new Mustang security system by "... banging on vehicles with mallets (yes, we cringe every time we hit the car...)". These real life insights into the engineering process, and the personal stories of Mustang ownership by some of the garage-racer/engineers, makes you see these guys as more than faceless employees. These engineers believe in this car. I have to give this blog good marks for giving a human face to a huge corporation and a very popular product.

Yet, they stopped updating the blog in Aug of 2004. What? Ford has a great PR tool and they drop it? Maybe large company's still don't understand the Public Relations value of blogs.

GM Takes the Lead:
GM seems to grasp the value of blogs for PR. Their blog is updated with many more posts than the Ford Mustang blog. The blog posts are short car news tidbits with no personal insights. On the positive side, GM FastLane even links you to a podcast of the Camaro concept car presentation and a downloadable camaro video.

Very savvy for a huge company. Looks like GM wins this race. (Note that the camaro video is an MP4 file which you may be able to play with Quicktime or maybe your video iPod. )