The Camaro concept car unveiled at last year’s Detroit auto show captured the imagination of Pontiac fan Kevin Morgan. He created a rendering of an ’09 Trans Am from the Camaro concept shape and his illustrations have created quite a buzz among hobbyists and on the Internet. His drawings have even appeared in national car magazines.
It is Pontiac owners and enthusiasts like Morgan that the Pontiac Division of General Motors and Yahoo, Inc! had in mind when they launched an online destination called Pontiac Underground last week. Pontiacunderground.com combines social media content from Yahoo! including Flickr photos, Yahoo! Answers, Yahoo!Video and Yahoo! Groups with consumer-created Pontiac content from hundreds of Pontiac fan communities throughout the Web.
Designed in partnership with Boston-based interactive agency Digitas, the site features “Pontiac Informer,” where users can see the latest articles, links and information from other sites about Pontiac, submit their own directly and rate them up or down. Morgan was one of the first to contribute to the online conversation, asking others to help him generate interest in bringing back the Trans Am. He invites people to visit his MySpace page, e-mail him or buy the T-shirt he designed featuring his concept car.
Also on the site, users can view and add to galleries of Pontiac videos and photos of cars. There’s also a place for knowledge sharing. Leveraging the knowledge base of Yahoo! Answers, Pontiac Underground provides a place for users to get the answers they are looking for, as well as share their knowledge with the community.
Pontiac will use the “Inside Track” blog as its primary means of communication with its enthusiast audience. The blog features exclusive news and images directly from Pontiac.
Among the other features on the site is an aggregated list of Pontiac clubs and events, allowing users to connect offline as well.
The site is a key component of Pontiac’s broad community-marketing initiatives for 2007. According to a recent Yahoo! Autos study conducted by J.D. Power and Associates, consumer-generated content is in high demand among car buyers. The vast majority–94 percent–of car buyers who use the web believe consumer-generated content is an important source of information to use when deciding between vehicles. The study’s findings highlight the importance of delivering social media offerings for consumers and automakers alike.
That being said, the new site is poised to be a win-win for Pontiac and consumers. “With Yahoo!’s leading social media platform, it’s exciting to finally be able to bring our GTO fans, G6 fans, Solstice fans, old Firebird or Chief fans, Vibe fans–all Pontiac online communities together,” said Pontiac marketing director Mark-Hans Richer in a statement. “Pontiac Underground is almost all consumer-generated–it’s their community, we’re just trying to add to it.”
Director Dag Johan Haugerud’s “Dreams (Sex Love)” Wins Top Prize At The Berlin Film Festival
A Norwegian film about love, desire and self-discovery won top honors at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday.
A jury headed by American director Todd Haynes awarded the Golden Bear trophy to "Dreams (Sex Love)" by director Dag Johan Haugerud.
Haynes called it a "meditation on love" that "cuts you to the quick with its keen intelligence."
The film focuses on a teenager played by Ella Øverbyer, infatuated with her female French teacher, and the reactions of her mother and grandmother when they discover her private writings. It's the third part of a trilogy Haugerud has completed in the past year. "Sex" premiered at Berlin in 2024, and "Love" was screened at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.
The runner-up Silver Bear prize went to Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaro's dystopian drama "The Blue Trail." Argentine director Ivan Fund's rural saga "The Message" won the third-place Jury Prize.
The best director prize went to Huo Meng for "Living the Land," set in fast-changing 1990s China.
Rose Byrne was named best performer for her role as an overwhelmed mother in the Mary Bronstein-directed "If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You." Andrew Scott won the supporting performer trophy for playing composer Richard Rodgers in Richard Linklater's "Blue Moon."
The climax of the festival known as the Berlinale came on the eve of Germany's parliamentary elections after a campaign dominated by migration and the economy.
The national election is being held seven months early, after Chancellor Olaf Scholz's governing coalition collapsed in a dispute about how to revitalize the country's economy.
Efforts to curb migration have emerged as a central issue in the campaign — along with the question of how to handle the... Read More