I’m in love with the new Ford Evos. There’s only one problem, Ford isn’t selling them. It’s a concept car. A design exploration. A glimpse at where Ford may be taking design in the future.

This tends to piss me off. My friend Nicholas Ellis put it best: “Did Apple ever introduce concepts?” He’s right.

Year after year, Steve Jobs introduced kickass, covetable products and built one of the most valuable and influential companies in the world. In that same time period, Microsoft unveiled prototype after prototype of vaporware products that never saw the light of retail or lit up their balance sheet.

Now, I know cars have a few more moving parts (not to mention more regulations and legal liabilities than a mobile phone), but I’d love to see Ford speed this car into showrooms.

Too often, companies release daring, evocative concept designs to test consumer opinions. The research folks listen to every piece of feedback, then the designers go back to work, sanding off all the corners that turned up noses.

And there’s the rub.

The next year, that bold concept is reintroduced as a ho-hum production model. The people who hated it now think it’s “meh”, the people who loved it now think it’s “meh” and the sales numbers usually end up being “meh”.

When you soften the edges that offend some people, you end up removing the edges that infatuate others. Never simply seek consensus when you have the opportunity to enflame true passion. Build remarkable. Piss a few people off. Create LOVERS and HATERS. Never create “meh”.

Evangelists and Raving Fans > Deal of the Day Customers

Ford Evos Concept Reveal by Ford Motor Company on Flickr.

It’s pretty hard not to like Ford these days. The automaker is rocking it from product to promotion to profit.

Much of the credit on the promotion side goes to the good Scott Monty and his band of merry marketers engaging folks in new ways via social media. Recent case study-worthy marketing efforts include Ford Fiesta Movement, the World’s Largest Tweetup, Ford Explorer Launch on Facebook, the top secret Focus Global Test Drive and Doug the Ford Spokespuppet. Ford is even one of the few businesses to be welcomed by Google for the Google+ beta.

Now, Team Ford is giving the media junket a social media makeover. 

Ford recently hosted a 3-day, in-depth look into the future called Ford Trends. The event took attendees behind the scenes for tours of Ford’s design, safety and technology labs. In the past, the event would have been reserved for highfalutin members of the automotive and business press. This year, Ford invited nearly 350 influential bloggers who cover a wide variety of topics to attend. Bloggers had an all-access pass to visit the Ford HQ in Detroit, Michigan and meet with executives, engineers and designers. My new favorite person, and Ford Social Media Manager, Craig Daitch hooked me up with an invite.

I share my impressions of the event in the video above. You can also see me tearing up the test track behind the wheel of the new Ford Focus in this clip. Or if tomfoolery and Disney showtunes are more to your liking, watch this video of Jenn Berry and I remixing Ford with The Little Mermaid.

For a look at the cool tech innovations highlighted at Ford Trends, read Jeffrey Powers‘ Geekazine Ford Trends posts. A few of my favorite bloggers also posted their impressions: Read CC Chapman, Sugar Jones, Curtis Silver, Naomi Shapiro and Christina Linnell.

For more information on the keynote speakers at Ford Trend, I highly recommend picking up a book or two from Malcolm Gladwell or Joel Garreau.

And most of all, if you haven’t found yourself behind the wheel of a Ford lately, you need to give them a second look. I’m looking at the Edge or Fusion for my next car. My wife Elena loves the all new Explorer.

Here’s a quick flip cam tour of the Ford exhibit at The North American International Auto Show.

Learn more about Ford:
http://www.ford.com

Learn more about Ford Fiesta Movement:
http://www.fiestamovement.com

Learn more about The North American International Auto Show:
http://www.naias.com

We think Plaid is pretty awesome. We rate them as the second best small agency in the country. We seem to agree with Plaid on most everything (except for the whole agency ranking business).

We were honored to have them stop by the Curve Detroit studio for a visit on this year’s Plaid Nation tour. They also visited a smaller firm in Dearborn called Ford to drive a Flex. You can relive the excitement in this video featuring Scott Monty and Amy Macintosh from renatoghio.