More from Ford's Rich Stoddart on
"American Dreams" Mustang film
Ford sent consumers a heartfelt family message this holiday season with a special episode of NBC's hit drama "American Dreams." The show's 11/21 episode, which aired without commercial interruption by Ford, featured the homecoming of JJ Pryor -- a lead character in the show who has been away at war -- and concludes with a nearly five-minute short film titled, "Homecoming."
The short film, from Ford's AOR J. Walter Thompson Detroit, captures the anticipation of a young serviceman's return home from war -- and the parallel experiences of his father who had undergone a similar series of events in Vietnam. It mirrors the storyline in "American Dreams" but brings the events into the modern day to communicate the continued importance of celebrating today's homecoming experiences for our servicemen and servicewomen.
More from our interview with Rich Stoddart, Ford Division marketing communications manager, last week (11/24 RBR Daily Epaper #230):
What were Ford dealers' reactions after seeing this clip before it aired?
How might they capitalize on this on a local level?
'Well, I think the only way I can characterize the dealers' responses was 'speechless.' I think the reaction that most people had, and certainly the reaction I had--and I've seen this thing multiple times-actually, the first time the agency came in and presented the script to me, I melted. I don't know how you experience that concept without having an emotional reaction, and I have been unable to make it through a presentation or the film itself yet without a tear in my eye. And so, this was the dealer reaction-there was not a dry eye in the house. And that was the senior leadership of our dealer council who comes in on a quarterly basis to just review the state of the business and provide input on a number of issues. So they actually weren't brought in for that purpose, it just happened to be ready, so it was kind of a surprise for them.
Our dealers have been very active in doing a military appreciation incentive program, anyone who is sort of current or retired from the military. And we have a number of dealers who are literally located almost on bases-in San Diego, the Carolinas. There are a number of dealers that are very active in that regard. We also showed the film and are showing the film in military movie theatres. So we're using there, saying, 'you know what, this is probably a message that deserves to be seen, even beyond this show, to those people who are hoping for their family to come home and celebrate among them like that.
And we've obviously leveraged the web. I mean the emails we've had saying, 'How can I see it again?' It's up and available both on the Fordvehicles.com website and on the NBC website. I don't have any traffic data yet, but we're seeing a lot of interest in this."
Tell us about the people who produced the ad.
"J. Walter Thompson/Detroit Executive Creative Director/Co-President Tom Cordner worked on the effort. The director that worked on this was Michael Apted, a very, very well known film director. That, I think, was another piece of the magic here. We didn't use a traditional/typical commercial director, we used a film director to try to do something a little bit different in five minutes than the usual 30 seconds."
Tell us about how you integrated the film so well into the theme and message of the show.
"At the end of the day, if you think about the show American Dreams and the state of the culture where the show takes place, the values of the show are very much what Ford is about. It's about family, it's about tradition, it's about America, it's about staying together, it's about perseverance, it's about doing what's right. We always look for, in these branded integration opportunities, what's the connection back to what we stand for in people's minds. And that is the brand."
Who handles the media buying there?
"We have a media agency called Ford Motor Media that's a piece of J. Walter Thompson. They've actually set up a dedicated buying unit for Ford Motor Company.
What does Ford's 2005 media plan look like?
"When we launched our new campaign, one of the points we made was that about nine years ago we spent 98% of our media on traditional mass media-television, radio, print and out-of-home-and about 2% on what I'll call one-to-one communications. Today, in 2004, that number is 80% on mass media and 20% on the web/customer relationship management events. And we expect that number to continue to grow. And frankly, I talk about '24,' but we also do this with American Idol, Fox and the NFL Pregame Show right now, with the bowl championship series, we do it with Toby Keith and his concert. There are a number of branded integrations we're doing right now."
Tomorrow: we interview J. Walter Thompson/Detroit Executive Creative Director/Co-President Tom Cordner on the effort.
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