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Branding Honor Salute

RBR/TVBR Observation-First

Close-up look: Ford's Rich Stoddart
on "American Dreams" Mustang film

Just think, a new series introduced by Dick Clark last year and was picked up for the full season and now a hit. Congratulations to NBC, Dick Clark Productions, and Ford. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and truly this year a reason for us all to give thanks.

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 many years earlier from 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.

The commercial-free episode allowed the show's producers to not break from the story's strong emotional content. And, in a twist since "American Dreams" takes place in the 1960's, a 1966 Ford Mustang was featured in the episode rather than the all-new 2005 Mustang. A 2005 Mustang and a 2005 Five Hundred co-star in "Homecoming."

This is not the first time Ford has done commercial-free long-form brand messaging. They actually did it first three years ago, in the season premiere of season two of Fox's "24" And last season they did the season premiere again, "Brought to you commercial-free by Ford." It was three and a half minutes at the front and two and a half minutes at the end. It was about Jack Bauer, the go-to guy on the show and Ford highlighted a guy who was a truck owner, whose name was Jeff Bauer. He got into trouble and got back out.

Rich Stoddart, Ford Division marketing communications manager, tells RBR/TVBR they got a lot of "incredibly positive response" to that. "We had some metrics on recall and brand imagery and that helped us validate the power of this." Stoddart also told us about how this all came together for American Dreams - Branding: "American Dreams developed on multiple fronts. It began with a media discussion in the upfront television season with the network to say:

1. 'What can we do that's different, that's interesting? The world of media is changing'.

2. And they brought us this idea of sponsoring the fall season finale-commercial-free,
brought to you by Ford.

Of course, at that point, it's really a concept and we didn't at that point really know what the episode was about or how we would work together. And that really is what makes this Branded Entertainment area powerful.

I think the reason that we've had the response we have to this is because we and the creative people at J. Walter Thompson were working with Jonathan Prince, the American Dreams producer and his writers over the past 60-90 days, talking back and forth. What's the show about? Mustang was already written into the show...well, how can we play off that? And that actually helped us come to some kind of conclusion about what the creative would be about it-how it would be most powerful."

He adds, "And actually, the writers collaborated with the creative people at our agency in writing the script of our five-minute short film. So there's a media component to it and there's a programming component to it-working with us and our agency. And that really is, as we've found, the only way that it works. It can't just be about sales saying, 'lets do something because programming will give you the Heisman.' But it also can't be just some sort of conceptual promise of 'Well, we'll put your product in, then.' That's basic product integration, and people do that every day. We don't think it's close to as powerful if you can become truly integrated into the content."

In addition to the short film's debut on "American Dreams," it will also be distributed to military base theaters around the world, on NBC.com as a host film for the show's web page and through Tivo's "Showcase" format.

Ford is also integrating product in a few other hot shows this season: One of the lead characters on Fox's "The OC" received a new Mustang in a recent episode, and her vehicle will continue to be featured prominently throughout the season. Viewers who tune into "Alias" on ABC will see the new Mustang in action and six families who benefit from "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" also will receive an additional surprise that helps get them on the road ahead -- a new garage that comes complete with a new Mustang, Freestyle, Five Hundred or Super Duty.

Beginning in January, Ford returns as a primary sponsor of "American Idol" for the fourth year. Mustang and other Ford vehicles will be integrated into the show this season.

Hear more from Stoddart in Monday's RBR/TVBR Daily Epapers, along with an interview from the creative side with J. Walter Thompson/Detroit Co-President Tom Cordner.