As every social marketer knows Facebook apps are a big deal. Facebook terms dictate that all contest activity on a brand's page must be managed though a 3rd party app; as a result apps have become the way brands promote events, contests, and giveaways. And any good app includes video!

Recently coBRANDiT has worked on a number of app projects. Our fave example is the app. built by Ignite Social Media for Ram Truck. The app was in support of Ram's Sponsorship of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and included giveaways of Ram schwag and a sweepstakes. How did it work?

Ram set up a mechanical bull at a bar in Detroit and 19 contestants mounted up and rode...coBRANDiT was there to shoot the action. We cut all the contestant videos up into a series of 30 second pieces, complete with a timer and slo-mo instant replay...Facebook users were invited to guess the length of time each rider stayed on. Winners received Ram gear!

Check out these screen shots below of the app in action...and a sample of the video! You may actually LOL.

coBRANDiT has produced 40+ vids for Chrysler over the past 10 months…the work is generally of a few types:

1) Art/mood pieces:
Fiat Miami mural painting timelapse (as seen above)
Fiat Stunt Driver in San Diego

2) Walkarounds: Intros to new vehicles
Dodge SRT8 Walkaround
Chrysler 300C Walkaround with John Furtuno
Ram Truck 1500 Express

3) Blogger roundtables/CEO interviews:
Dodge's Ralph Gilles Roundtable
Chrysler 300C Roundtable

4) Event coverage:
Fiat Press Event San Diego
Jeep NEMPA Awards

5) Livestreaming:
Dodge Woodward Dreamcruise

Most of this work is done on short notice, with finished videos delivered from 1-7 days after the shoot. Our approach and experience allows us to operate quickly and with minimal oversight...that's why our clients love us! (Read our recommendations here) For more details on our work with Chrysler, please contact us.

Held every year in Detroit on the 3rd weekend of August, the Woodward Dreamcruise is an unofficial celebration of the American auto industry. Dodge reserved a key location at Woodward and 13 Mile featuring vintage cars, custom hot rods, new Mopar technology and various entertainments. coBRANDiT was retained to provide live coverage of the event for 6 hours on Saturday afternoon.

How we did it: Camera 1 continually swept Woodward Ave, zooming in on burnouts, crazy rides, and Dodge vehicles. Camera 2 roved in the Dodge display, shooting details of the vintage cars and picking up interviews conducted by staffers of official Dodge blog Red Line Dodge. We cut between cameras and managed titles and the text crawl from a laptop nearby running Livestream's pro studio.

Each camera utilized a Live pack which wirelessly fed the signal to livestream's servers. We accessed the feeds through the studio interface (pictured above) which allowed us to switch between cameras, lay in titles, and pop in logos and text crawls. We also archived both feeds and had the ability to re-broadcast previous clips and pre-produced pieces. The entire production process was managed via a wireless 4G card...not really recommended (hardwired ethernet is more secure) but it works in a pinch. Dodge embedded the live broadcast in facebook.com/dodge and at the top of Red Line Dodge (see picture below).

coBRANDiT has managed numerous live broadcasts on both the livestream and ustream platforms. Get in touch if you'd like to discuss a live video project!

Yes it's true! Italian automaker Fiat is returning to the US market with it's iconographic car, the 500. A series of events were held during Art Basel Miami 2010 to publicize the introduction and a mural was hand painted at a local street corner. coBRANDiT was engaged to create a snappy timelapse video showing the process of it's creation; check out the results above!

The Brief:
Ford is teaming up with the creators of The Amazing Race to create a new web series -- Focus Rally: America. It's the ultimate interactive cross-country road rally. They're looking for an elite group to take the wheel of the all-new 2012 Focus for five weeks, beginning in February -- digitally savvy people with a hunger for adventure. The first casting call was to take place on Friday October 15th at BlogWorld Expo 2010 in Las Vegas, NV...and Ford wanted a video of the process for display at BlogWorld (and on the web) by 9:30am Saturday the 16th. The video had to be fun, fast-paced, and informative; it had to work on a big screen in front of a live audience and it had to have legs for the web: all web traffic would be driven to focusrally.com and a related facebook page. Who could deliver a sharp piece on such a crazy deadline?

coBRANDiT's Role:
We put a two man team on the scene, carefully mapping out the shoot in advance. We started shooting video at 10:30 and wrapped the shoot by 2:30...then we whisked into post-production. Edits, titles, transitions and beats were pulled together in a whirlwind of caffeine fueled activity. The video was uploaded for client review late that night, changes were made at 7:00am, and the piece delivered on time and to spec.

Results:
"The video is fantastic and was very well received...it was so nice to know that you had everything under control and I love the result." -- Karen U., Ogilvy PR Worldwide / Ford Motor Company

I spent New Year's Day cruising around town documenting some of the sweet rides found on the streets here...typified by the kind of shabby chic I love. Happy New Year from coBRANDiT!

coBRANDiT’s Role:
We sent a two-man video crew to cover the event, attending blogger dinners, press events, the show floor, and interviewing GM managers and auto industry bloggers about their take on the state of the industry and show announcements. Within two days we released 14 detailed videos on various social media sites, and built a cross-platorm video widget to allow easy sharing and embedding on relevant blogs and social networks. These videos were viewed thousands of times and resulted in increased traffic to Gmnext.

We're learning to build widgets on sprout's platform, here's an example we mocked up for a theoretical PUMA motorsport campaign. (Note: Widget no longer supported as of 7/2010) Widgets to me represent the ultimate viral thing for a marketer...a perfect little tranferable package...as long as you recognize that they're worthless as a stand-alone gadget. They should be treated as the interface for a much deeper experience, and an interface that provides some usefulness & utility. Pretend you're an F1 race fan, then play around with the widget above and you'll see some of what I'm talking about. Note: PUMA produces Ferrari's team gear.

Announcements were made regarding new introductions and concept cars (of course), but the big news was E85 ethanol and GM's investment in Coskata, a company that seems to have found a way to make E85 out of a renewable resource: trash. Click play to view our vids, enjoy!

This video is nutty. Now why isn't this on the GTI Mark V's site, mixed in with some new stuff? So cool I can't even stand it.

Caddy's new campaign "My Cadillac Story" is a good example of the sort of integrated thing we at coBRANDiT have been pushing for awhile. It's a web video series on (what else) Cadillac stories as told by the famous (Joan Jett, Fat Joe) and the not so famous (Matt & Michaeline Larson, Jerry Franchi) as well as guys working on the assembly line. The site shows hi quality flash vids, but also plays out on YouTube...the whole thing supported by print ads in magazines and newspapers. Now, will they intro any new products through the site??

While filming at AltWheels we ran into Click & Clack, the Tappet brothers: hosts of NPR's Car Talk. We asked them how they were enjoying the show, and whether they were prepared to deal with all the new technology coming down the pike. (Part of our Treehugger TV piece.)

John Moore of Boston Clean Air Cabs talks about the challenges and benefits of introducing hybrid vehicles to urban cab fleets. Plus a word from the lucky driver of Boston's first hybrid cab. Shot at AltWheels, footage for our Treehugger TV piece.

Honda's alternative fuel vehicle consultant Barry Carr talks about the compressed natural gas (CNG) Civic that's been brought to retail market in California and NY. Refuel your car at home! Filmed at AltWheels Boston 2006, it's extra material from our Treehugger TV piece.

This vintage microbus has been heavily modded by VW's Electronic Research Lab in Palo Alto, California. It's battery powered, and stuffed with electronic gizmos that for the most part work (but I don't know about the vein-detecting entry system...) This bus would make a sweet ride for 007 on his day off. We shot this at Boston's AltWheels Festival last September, material for a piece we produced for Treehugger TV.

Just discovered (thanks to Theresa Iezzi at Ad Age) this videoblog effort by Ford: Bold Moves. This is a really great example of the kind of work we've been pushing companies to produce. An open investigation into business processes and challenges, a behind the scenes look at how things get done, and a call for discussion and criticism. This series (a new vid every week for 50 weeks) provides Ford all kinds of opportunity to display it's competence, highlight the individuals who make the company, and reach out to the press, customers, and the world at large. It will be interesting to see how open the series really is, how responsive it will be, and what steps will be taken to really involve consumers in the story. Show test drives? Interview Ford club members? Find evangelists and give them some treats? What kind of word-of-mouth will be generated? Wait and see...

While out scouting locations we stumbled across this sweet ride: A Ford Crown Vic that runs on CNG (Compressed Natural Gas). It's a state-owned police package vehicle driven by Jim Griffin, Acting Director for Mobile Maintenance, Massachusetts Dep't of Conservation and Recreation. Jim spent a few minutes with us talking about his car, the state, and CNG.

What might a brand new Bentley lack? Hmm. Remember the stereo in J's FX45?

"J's a plate guy. He loves vanity plates..."

Bentley Continental Flying Spur delivery, con't.

A new series on J's new car. Starting December 2005.

Nelson and his '89 Mustang. Nelson works at the local VW dealership here in Allston (Boston) but has been a Mustang fanatic for years, ever since he was a kid...but this body style only, the 25th anniversary edition. Here he describes the work he's put into it. (postscript: the car got torched last summer.)

Murray tells the cactus joke. Taken all together, what does this series tell us? German engineering is incredible. Style and handling are important. The relationship between manufacturer, employees, customers, and the environment is crucial. And BMW has a reputation for attracting pricks. If I was BMW, here's what I'd do with this lesson (written while BMW is in review):

The Ultimate Driving Machine statement remains on target. Stay with it, but do more to make the point. Sponsor more local driving events, autocrosses, track days, driver safety classes etc. in which BMW owners and others can learn skills and demo new models. Build a BMW hybrid. Why isn't german engineering a leader in green tech? There's a huge opportunity for a sporty/luxury hybrid. Show the BMW factory. No sweatshop there! Good benefits, clean environment. Responsible manufacturing costs $$, it's part of why the cars are expensive. Videotape all this stuff. Put it online, etc etc. Might make BMW owners seems less prickly...

Update: BMW is now video podcasting. And it's not bad...

In which Murray talks about how if cars left piles of shit in the driveway we might do more about emissions.

Murray continues on the topic of 1972 BMW style.

Continuing our series on people and their cars... Murray is a classically trained pianist and an appreciator of fine German engineering. Here he describes the mechanical fuel injection system in his BMW 2002. No sensors! No computers! Just one very eccentric cam. "It's like a motor in a motor." Stay tuned for the next three episodes, in which Murray describes style and speed circa 1972, if cars could take a dump, and "the cactus joke."

Some technical detail on the Obcon Godzilla Box installed in J's trunk...and a desciption of its effects. (hint: children go into hiding) The installer J. keeps talking about is Kenyon Lee at AVI, Newton Mass.

OK, now we get to see how he compensates for having to give up the 911...

J elaborates on his choice of vehicle.

J. shows up at the appointed meeting spot and talks about his ride.

Glen & Zack are VW nuts. Here Glen describes the coming mods on Zack's ride. How about a supercharger from a Pontiac? Sounds good to me.

We went out to Boston Bentley to film J. picking up his new car. He got silly while the salesman wasn't looking.