HATS OFF ... ALESHA, CAKE AND FORD FOCUS
From time to time, we take our hats off to a truly stunning piece of PR work.
Sometimes, the idea is pure genius (in a "fuck me, why didn't I think of that?" sort of way), sometimes the media relations is stunningly handled. And then, very rarely, something really brilliant shines through.
It comes from a great piece of advertising ... the new Ford Focus "beautifully arranged" ad, to be precise. An orchestra plays instruments made out of pieces of the car.
Alright, alright, it's a bit "Honda Power of Dreams" meets "Skoda Cake" meets Sony music.like.no.other". But somehow, it isn't as derivative as it might at first sound ...
ANYHOW ... getting to the point.
Taking this ad as their starting point, the rather clever boys and girls at Cake (who we've worked with on BT and sometime client Expedia) have taken the instruments and come up with a profoundly cunning stunt ...
Creating an ad-funded pop promo (the technical term for a music video, I believe) with Alesha Dixon (of Mis-Teeq and Strictly Come Dancing fame). The ad features the instruments from the ads along with the car - with Ford picking up the tab for the filming and bunging their new celebrity amabassador a hefty amount to boot, no doubt.
Anyway, for all the carping, this is a really stunning piece of work.
Hats off to the boys and girls at Cake, who are now setting about delivering the coverage that the campaign deserves. Great pieces in the Daily Star, the Mail, Metro, The Sun, Heat - and that was just on page one of Google.
The Alesha film is here ...
Meantime, for those who want all the technical details, here's the media blurb ...
The special edition Alesha Dixon video showcases a selection on the instrument including - Clutch Guitar, Door Harp, Fender Bass, Transmission Case Cello and Hatchback Kick Drum. In total 21 parts were taken from a new Ford Focus and turned into musical instrument that sound and look completely unique.
One of the instruments, the ‘Door Harp’ is made from a front door, a window, and a spring and uses harp strings. The ‘Clutch Guitar’ is made from body sheet metal, power brake booster and parts of the actual clutch.
It has real guitar tuning keys and real guitar strings with the strap made from a seat belt. The video shoot took place in one of the car manufacturer’s wind tunnels at its Technical Centre in Dunton, Essex in January. Alesha performs a classical remix of her track ‘For You I Will’ accompanied by twelve of the car part instruments.
Now, we could waffle on endlessly about how this is the future of content and that what the Cake boys have done is something stunning that points to the way we will all see brands behave. But that would be to cast a strategically rather dull observation over a great piece of creative thinking.
So we will just say that we think it's bloody clever, deserves all the praise that it gets and makes us start to think about the range of things that could be interestingly ad-funded and appropriately branded ...
Is it the done thing to add comments to your own post ... I dunno.
Anyhow, the ever-interesting Amelia Torode has made some interesting observations about the Ford and latest Honda work.
Well worth a read ...
http://ameliatorode.typepad.com/life_moves_pretty_fast/2008/02/ford-is-interes.html
Posted by: James Gordon-MacIntosh | 05 February 2008 at 09:41 PM
Kind words James - thanks from planet Cake.
Posted by: Jim | 08 February 2008 at 10:41 AM
Always happy to give a gentle doff of the hat to some fine work ... Cheers, J
Posted by: James Gordon-MacIntosh | 08 February 2008 at 11:34 AM
Great post though isn't the hat the whole point of the story? lol
Posted by: Car Parts Online | 13 July 2008 at 08:22 PM