Acura Invades Sundance Filmfest
by EVANDER KLUM
With the heightened competition in the auto industry, automakers are supposed to think of brand new territories to conquer and fresh techniques to lure more aficionados. And Acura is doing what is expected of it.
The automaker is not only absorbed in producing quality production cars as well as sports cars to rule the race tracks. Now the automaker is stepping into a new territory with the hope of driving more sales. The automaker will be invading a filmfest �C the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. But the said filmfest is the first of many.
The Sundance Film Festival is the biggest independent film festival in the United States. It is known for showcasing the works of American and international independent filmmakers.
With the advent of the merger between iFilm.com and Spike.com, the latter will be providing on-the-ground coverage of major film festivals starting with the Sundance Film Festival, and it's bringing sponsor Acura along for the ride, reported the Hollywood Reporter.
"Film festivals are something that our users get very excited about, and our content team felt strongly that this could be a great platform for us to pursue from a consumer perspective," said Rebecca Keszkowski, senior director of digital integrated marketing for Spike.com. "We were prepared to take it to market, and the first advertiser that we brought it to and started conversations with about collaboration was Acura."
According to the release, Spike.com will shoot the Acura TL model at Sundance, the Miami Film Festival, the Aspen Film Festival and South by Southwest to create specially produced openers and closers that will run just before and after content about the festivals online on Spike's Guys Guide to the Festivals. Atom.com, sister site of Spike.com, also will have the choice of running the content along with the openers and closers promoting the automaker.
"We're going beyond pre-roll or billboard and really integrating the car as part of the rollup into the introduction of the actual content for the user, so it's a seamless experience," Keszkowski noted. "Not only is the car part of the experience, but it's in the setting. That was a conscious decision to make sure that we really incorporated it in everything we did."
One vehicle from the maker of Acura distributor rotor will travel with each Spike.com production team to each of the mentioned filmfests. It is worth noting that this will be the very first time that Spike.com and Atom.com will be providing on-the-ground coverage of films, events and other intriguing happenings at the festivals. Prior to this venture, they are just presenting featured clips and trailers.
