Yahoo and Ford are teaming up to promote the Ford Focus Electric in an attempt to show the car as fun and convenient to drive. The 10-episode branded entertainment series Plugged In, produced in conjunction with Ford and Magical Elves, will see two-person teams completing a series of challenges in 10 U.S. cities.
Celebrities will lead the players to their favorite places in cities like Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, New York, and Austin. Each episode will be featured every week on the video hub Yahoo Screen and target a wide demographic.
Yahoo airs 21 of the top 25 video series online, and hopes watchers become emotionally invested in the series, though there is an unconventional character this time around. “The car is going to be a character,” said Yahoo video head Erin McPherson. “It’s not going to be an advertorial or an infomercial, but the car is going to be featured in a very organic way that is not over the top.”
Contestants will be shown using features like the car’s navigation technology to find various venues or making hands-free calls to connect with friends and family, and hopefully dispelling fears that electric cars can work. “We want consumers to become educated, and this show helps us address that comfort level,” said John Felice, gm of Ford and Lincoln sales. “And we want to do that in a non-preachy way…the show’s got to be entertaining. If not, the online social community is brutal.”
Plugged In episodes will be shareable via Facebook and Twitter and viewers will be asked to post photos of their hometowns to special Flickr pages. Despite the original production, Felice said that Plugged In will be far more efficient than the average car launch, which can cost $80 million to $100 million in media.
Source: AdWeek
