Creativity 50 2010: James Farley

Motor Co. has refused to let itself get buried in the messes of other U.S. automakers and has continued to push innovation and new ideas. Case in point? The new Ford Focus, which is aimed to be relevant to consumers across the globe.

Ford's global marketing chief, James Farley, said the company would run only four to five different ad strategies to promote Focus around the world. In the past, it might have run as many as 20 different campaigns. "We really have changed the approach on how we work together as global and regional marketing teams and PR in the way we will go to market and take waste out of the system," he told Ad Age. The difference: crafting commercials based on the audience they aim to attract, not on vehicle features.

At the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year, Ford unveiled a system it has dubbed "MyFord" that implements such niceties as touch-sensitive buttons, touch screens, thumb-wheel controls, and voice recognition in the car to guide everything from audio to climate control.

See the rest of the 2010 Creativity 50 here.