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!

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.

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.)