Ford’s “Drive one” campaign, which debuted April 8, focuses on how the cars embody four pillars — quality, green, safe and smart, with www.forddriveone.com featuring webisodes in all four categories in which Ford employees talk about their work and the new technologies the company is introducing in its vehicles.
The webisodes were created by Team Detroit and produced by GMD Studios, Orlando, FL.
“They were looking for a voice for people within the company who could talk in detail about the specific pillars and drill down into the specific technology and ideas that have been developed at Ford, and drill down more than the :30 TV spots,” said Sam Walsh, executive producer at Team Detroit.
The website features four blue bars–Drive quality, Drive green, Drive safe and Drive smart, that can be clicked to play a webisode. Four new webisodes will be put up each week, with approximately 30 to be featured during the campaign, according to Paul Anderson, manager of Ford’s Cross Vehicle Marketing program.
Brian Clark, CEO of GMD Studios, said the company made 26 videos in the first round. They were shot “all over the map, from Ford headquarters to Los Angeles and Echo Bay. Most of the webisodes featured engineers who discussed things people wouldn’t know about the process. There are no episodes about cars like the Mustang, but there are shots of hybrid cars you can’t buy yet, like the Fusion 999 prototype, a hydrogen fuel cell race car that uses hydrogen gas with no emissions.”
“How Fast Can Green Go” combined footage of the Fusion 999 shot at the Bonneville Salt Flats in northwest Utah during a race event last August, when the Fusion 999 attained a speed of 207 mph. Clark used Ford footage from the event and shot an interview of Ford’s production engineer, Matt Zuehlk. They also shot new footage of five experimental vehicles. “We had the assets and we wanted to tell a documentary story, not sell the product,” Clark said.
The principal cameras Clark used were the Panasonic DVX100A with Letus lens adaptor and the Panasonic HVX200.
The webisodes currently play on the Forddriveone site. “The next step is socializing them in other places and it’s just being finalized,” Walsh said. “We’ll outreach them to various audiences through paid and viral syndication. Some auto industry sites have already picked them up.”
Ford’s “Drive one” campaign, which follows “Bold Moves” and “Swap Your Ride,” includes TV spots on American Idol and other top rated programs. The campaign seeks to motivate Ford employees and dealers as well as consumers. “The webisodes complement the TV spots, but give more information and tell a bigger story,” Anderson said.
Supreme Court Allows Multibillion-Dollar Class Action Lawsuit To Proceed Against Meta
The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta's bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place.
The high court dismissed the company's appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward.
Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump 's first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the company was disappointed by the court's action. "The plaintiff's claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the District Court," Stone said in an emailed statement.
Meta already has paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two high court cases involving class-action lawsuits against tech companies. The justices also are wrestling with whether to shut down a class action against Nvidia.... Read More