Ford is making the car ad personal enough to put festivalgoers on screen.
At the 2026 Ohana Festival in Southern California, the carmaker debuted the ROAM Story Engine.
Creative agency Sounds Fun and cultural strategy partner Sherpa Jacket Club developed the experience.
The engine asks attendees about their interests, destinations, and passions.
It then uses 3D and generative technology to create a cinematic Mustang Mach-E film starring each participant.
"Everything we do at Ford is about giving people the freedom to pursue what they love."
"The ROAM Story Engine is a new way for the audience to experience that belief themselves," said Mark Dipko, VP and GM at Ford Model E, North America.
The finished film plays on a large screen and goes straight to the participant's phone as a social asset.
The activation is a way to make Ford's "Freedom of Never Having to Choose" promise personal before asking people to consider a purchase.
AI Places the Driver Inside the Scene
The ROAM Story Engine starts with a short conversation about what each attendee loves and where they would go.
These answers guide a film that places the participant inside a Mustang Mach-E story tailored to their interests.
The 3D and generative technology controls how the vehicle and participant appear within each environment.
Scenes can use reflections, camera discoveries, and other visual devices to place the driver inside the action.
The format also gives the festival activation a second life.
Each film will appear on a large screen at the event, then reach the participant directly on their phone for viewing and sharing.
Iain Thomas, chief innovation officer at Sounds Fun, described ROAM as "a completely new approach to experience design andstorytelling."
"This work is an embodiment of our belief that technology is at its best when it's used to create completely new opportunities in storytelling," Thomas said.
Ford hands the personalization work to the attendee, who leaves with a film instead of a brochure.
Ohana also gives the first activation a specific cultural setting, with coastal elements tied to Southern California.
The collaboration is planned to continue across different venues nationwide, which the platform can adapt to.
Personalization Gets a Reality Check From EV Data
The Mach-E has maintained a sizable customer base while Ford continues refining its EV strategy.
Ford sold 51,620 Mustang Mach-E vehicles in the U.S. in 2025, according to a year-end sales release.
But Model e wholesale volume fell 53% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, while revenue fell 56%.
Personalization also has a limit. Gartner found that 53% of surveyed customers had negative experiences with personalization.
These customers were 3.2 times more likely to regret a purchase and 44% less likely to buy again.
The figures show why communicating the Mach-E's practical use cases matters as Ford manages EV demand.
The findings show that relevance can help or hurt depending on how the experience uses personal information.
- Personalization needs to give people something back. Brands should hand over a useful or shareable result to make participation worth their time.
- Customization should reinforce the product. Marketers should connect personal interests to product benefits to make the value easier to understand.
- Personal data needs a clear exchange. Brands should explain what participants receive to build trust and reduce friction.
Personalized experiences have greater value when the customization changes what people actually walk away with.
Our Take: Can Personal Stories Sell EV Versatility?
ROAM gives Ford room to show several versions of the same vehicle across very different lifestyles.
We think that personal stories can sell Mach-E versatility, as long as the car does something specific in every film.
The risk comes when the individual story becomes more memorable than the product.
A beautiful personalized film can earn attention while leaving viewers unsure why the Mach-E fits the life they just watched.
State Farm hit the same problem this football season and answered it with spots that run on real customers, like fans named Mike and Ashley.
ROAM arrives as brands continue to use live events to produce content people can take with them.
Ford has the harder version of this, with a finished film generated on-site for someone it just met.
The national rollout will show whether one product role can hold across every story people bring to the booth.
Ford's ROAM experience shows how experiential campaigns can give audiences a role in the creative output.
Brands seeking similar audience-led activations can explore these top experiential marketing agencies.
