Ever wondered how making frothy Lassi in typical Chandigarh fashion at a roadside Dhaba and then convincing 25 strangers to try it out, making at least 20 people dress up in casuals and dance at a beach shack can be related to a cross-country drive? And more intriguingly, if such a drive comes with least fuel required and aims to make the whole journey carbon-neutral? Then come, experience and follow Ford India's Discover Smart Drive's second edition which flagged today. Ford India's hugely popular and successful Discover Smart Drive (DSD Season 2) makes a compelling comeback this year with loads of fun, adventure and cross-country engagement. For the first-time ever, the finishing leg of the drive will be in Nepal – an export market for the phenomenal Figo.
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The winner gets a chance to drive the Figo in Nepal, which also includes a helicopter ride over the mighty and scenic Himalayas (depending on weather conditions). "We've tried to make DSD 2 exciting and challenging at the same time. The passionate winners also get to see that the Figo is a popular car beyond India's borders and cherish the experience of a lifetime by visiting an exciting tourist destination. We want you to join in the fun!" said Ford India executive director, Marketing, Sales and Service, Nigel Wark. The drive kicks off simultaneously on December 5 from Jammu, Lucknow, Mumbai and Chennai with four legs travelling the North to West, North to East, West to South and South to East corridors respectively. Ford India selected the participants from a contest calling for entries on Facebook.com/FordFigo that invited young passionate people to take part in the eight-day drive. To qualify, participants had to send in their nominations by submitting videos that convinced the jury of their candidature as the most worthy.
For the first time DSD2 will include Bunny Punia and Bobby Roy from Gaadi.com as mentors for the participating teams. The duo are auto experts who have participated in numerous rallies around the country and would bring their enriching experience on ground as mentors to the participants and help them reach their goals. Punia and Roy will be driving the North to West leg of the tour, Jammu-Amritsar-Chandigarh-New Delhi-Jaipur-Jodhpur-Pokhran. North to East leg of the tour, Lucknow–Allahabad–Varanasi–Hazaribaug–Durgapur– Kolkata will be driven by Nishant Biswal pursuing his post-graduation from Kozikode and Iti Aggarwal who is currently working with a production house. Both Iti and Nishant love travelling, music and reading.
West to South leg of the tour, Mumbai-Pune-Kohlapur-Goa-Kozhikode-Kochi will be driven by twin brothers Gunjan and Gaurav Juyal from Mumbai. Gunjan is a software engineer who loves travelling and relishing the flavours that his travelling experiences have to offer. A highly creative Gaurav is TV host for a popular children’s TV channel. Taking the wheel in the South to East leg, Chennai-Tirupati-Nellore-Vijaywada-Vishakapatnam-Bhubaneshwar is participants Karn Kaushik and Kunal Bedarkar. Karn and Kunal are professional mountaineers and spend most of their time in Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh. Karn used to work as a journalist and Kunal used to work as a language expert before they decided to quit their jobs and follow their passion.
For the first time ever, Ford India has made the entire DSD Season 2 a whole lot more experiential by roping in fan participation, both online and offline, as an important component of the drive. The new point-based scoring system adopted for the drive is made more challenging by linking it to finding pieces of and completing a zigsaw puzzle along the route in the shortest time. But the interesting catch is to complete it with active fan participation and engagement and evaluation of the videos shot along the way. "Our campaigns are focused around real people and real experience and we are echoing it in this years’ Discover Smart Drive. What these passionate teams are doing on road can be followed real time via our social media channels and this makes it so much more thrilling and fun-filled, even for our huge number of community fans," Wark added.
During the road trip, the participants will have the chance to explore the scenic wonders and local attractions of the various cities and regions and accomplish missions unique to each venue. So every activity like visiting locations on the route map, cooking food at an eatery, to garnering followers on social networking sites helps them add on points. They will step into a number of Ford dealerships and venues along the way to join related parties and celebrations. They'll also share their journey stories, photos, videos and experiences online on their social profiles, as well as engage with the Ford Figo fans on the official Ford communities.
Ford Figo fans can follow the teams online on the Ford Figo communities and help the teams by posting valuable suggestions, advice and tips and participate in the offline events in their respective locations along the way. There are interesting prizes for fans to be won on the Ford Figo online community. Flagging off the drive from Mumbai today, Nigel E Wark, executive director, Marketing, Sales and Service,Ford India said, “Figo’s value proposition of being a value-for-money vehicle continues to find reverberation in the market. We are happy to kick off the Discover Smart Drive 2 to Kochi and we wish to thank all our customers for their support in making Figo the most popular car in its segment in India and find growing acceptance in exports markets world over.”
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