Ford Canada has launched a new three-part web series to promote its Ford Focus model.
The episodes, conceived and produced by Sonic Boom, follow an young, eager employee named Julian, and his boss Serge. The first video, released last week, shows off the car’s features, like keyless entry, self-parking and push button start, as part of the storyline, which sees Julian race to pick up lunch for an important client meeting.
The series has a comic book feel, using a rapid series of photos rather than a live action video to tell the story. According to Jason Day, marketing communications manager at Ford Canada, Sonic Boom took more than 10,000 photos during production and then spliced 60 to 90 together for each episode.
Day said the brand was looking to find a humorous, light-hearted way to show off the car’s features, like when Julian uses the car’s heated seats to keep his takeout warm.
Ford has found consumers don’t want to hear the details of every feature on social media, said Day. Instead, they are looking for entertaining, sharable content, which was the main goal of creating a web series for the brand.
Initially, Day said the video was created specifically for the Quebec market. He said 30% of small cars sold in Canada are sold in Quebec, which makes the region a prime target for the Focus. Because of this, Ford went with a style of humour it thought would appeal to Quebecois sensibilities, and filmed at popular locations in Montreal like Schwartz’s Deli.
After the shoot, the brand decided to cut an English language version of the series. It is being promoted on Ford’s blog and social accounts, not through paid media, said Day.
