LOS ANGELES--Ford on Wednesday will run an ad featuring a short film that won an online competition, reflecting how companies are seeking to cut costs while boosting their brand awareness.
The 60 second ad shows two aspiring filmmakers and snippets of their film, "Numskull," the winner of the "Mustang Stories" short-movie contest run by online video site Filmaka in conjunction with WPP Group Plc's JWT Team Detroit ad agency and Ford.
The commercial during the season premier of "Knight Rider" will promote Ford's new 2010 Mustang model and the aggressive online campaign around it.
"With all the disruption in the advertising and media businesses today, brands need an increasing volume of professional content produced in a highly efficient way," said Sandy Grushow, president of Filmaka, and former chairman of News Corp's Fox Television Entertainment Group.
"Brands need to figure out a way to cut costs while they remain as relevant to consumers as ever before," he said adding, "Ford and JWT approached Filmaka because they believed short films on the Web were the perfect medium."
Unlike Google's YouTube and other online video sites, Filmaka pitches itself as a studio, brokering distribution deals for its members and taking a cut of the proceeds from their content.
Since its April 2008 launch, Filmaka has conducted online brand contests for FX Network, owned by News Corp, SABMiller PLC, Red Bull and Cisco Systems Inc but Ford is the first to build a TV ad around the content.
Nearly 400 scripts were submitted to Filmaka after its members were challenged to submit entries reflecting personal stories about the iconic Mustang.
Twenty-two semifinalists then got the green light and about $5,000 to produce their films. Filmaka also got a fee.
Grushow would not comment on the terms but said the costs related to the Ford campaign were far below the typical costs associated with television branding.
"It would not be unheard of for one of the largest automotive companies in the world and one of the biggest ad agencies to spend in excess of $1 million in creating a 60-second commercial," said Grushow.
Story Copyright 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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