Restraint prevailed over all else during the media preview days for this year’s North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit. Instead of celebrity performances, animal stunts and the barely relevant blowouts we’ve come to expect from shows past, a mood of high seriousness reigned. As such, the heavy focus on technology tended in one overwhelming direction: weaning us away from the gas pump. Certainly interactive, connective in-car technologies were on display, but they sat in quiet remove from all those adjustments to the drivetrain. Fair enough, of course.

Scott Monty heads up social media efforts for Ford Motor Company, an effort he began in July. In that role, he’s responsible for internal and external adoption of social media strategy to help improve Ford’s overall reputation. I sat down with Scott last month to discuss his approach, before what could only be categorized as an extremely active period for Scott.

Detroit, we have a problem. Falling marketing budgets and deteriorating purchase volume in the global market put incredible pressure on the automotive CMO. Even without the financial crisis and the beginning of a recession, global share gains for search and interactive media were likely. Faced with significant uncertainty, marketing strategy shouldn’t be limited to optimizing the media mix.