The Jones from Ford
I’ve been watching Where are the Jones? for a while. Sponsored by Ford, the video blog follows Dawn Jones, a child of AI who decides to track down all the other people with the same sperm donor father. The twist is once the premise was set, the episodes and storyline are scripted collaboratively by fans of the site, who work on a wiki to write the new shows.
An idea that taps into the current trend for creating user-generated content but in a way that is safe for the sponsors, the concept is good but I’m not sure it is taking off. Video views are only a couple of 100 each and there are only about 70 people signed up to the wiki to contribute. There’s not too much buzz about this at all either – most of it that I can find is from advertising blogs ;-) It’s a pity, as it is well put together. The sponsorship is subtle, with only minor branding and most of the site focuses on presenting the show and encouraging interaction and engagement with the show and with the other contributors. They are using all the usual suspects – Flickr, YouTube, Twitter – and the content is produced under Creative Commons licence, so you can take it and remix and re-use.
On my first look I wondered whether it the content was being produced by independents who had managed to get Ford to sponsor them, but instead it is managed by the Imagination Group, a Brand Experience and was developed for Ford. My guess is this is a test, a reach out and try to see what the reaction will be, although with safeguards – the ToS say you cannot denigrate Ford nor any other car brand. I’d love to know what the success criteria are. The link to the brand is tangential, more of the branded content that is there to connect with the customers and provide a halo affect – hey this brand bought me this great experience, they must be good. I expect to see more and more of these kinds of experiments, moving away from direct RoI related to sales.
Disclaimer: Ford is major client of the agency I work for, but I have nothing to do with this account. All opinions on here are mine and not my employers.
Thanks for posting about the Joneses project – you caught us at the very early days. The project was always intended to have a slow burn – I’ve worked on many large projects for a UK broadcaster who always shouted about the service at launch when there was no content to satisfy an audience. As Henry from Baby Cow (our comedy producers) said in the Guardian today “Jesus only started with 12 disciples and he did all right.”
The correlation between the brand and the project is actually more than tangential – but I’ll leave you to ponder that. It’s an experiment in brand abstraction… (It’s worth noting the Ford brand differs from UK to US)
Regarding the safe guards in the ToS reflects the clauses in Creative Commons BY-SA v3.0. It’s worth noting that our use of CC does not prevent commercial reuse of any of the media. Anyone or any brand can use the media produced for commercial gain. This is not only essential for the media to be used through out the webservices, but also to invigorate creative communities.
Where are the Joneses is the first Free Media comedy built upon RSS feeds.
But you are bang on right about ROI vs. Return on Engagement (or Return on Involvement as Kevin Roberts like to say). You’re the first person to identify this – the trade press still don’t understand this dynamic.
Hope this helps clarify the project – please let me know if you have any more questions.
David
Thanks David…you’ve made me stop and think a little about the rollout. I usually recommend a slow rollout and have problems with accounts that demand fast results with this stuff so why I did not apply it here I don’t know – but then again fast is often in less than a week and this has been around for a few weeks. You’re right though – I’m also seeing more traction about this piece with it popping up more and more in the blogs I read, both the amateur and the professional stuff.
And I’m going to have to dig up the UK brand stuff – my personal interest in cars is pretty low, so I would not have paid much attention to UK ads for them. Time to go take a look
And on Return on Engagement – that’s what this stuff is all about and why it is long term strategies that play better than quick response stuff. It;s about building a brand in a different way that connects emotionally. Do something now, influence and engage, improve sales down the line.