Strategy

Over the course of a century, the art of the motion picture has evolved from the silent, black-and-white film experiments of yesteryear into an international community of storytellers who bring their creations to screens big and small. Today’s films can reach audiences wherever they are, from laptops to phones, even inside the moving car. And today, the audience has even become a part of the creation process through the new world of virtual and interactive technologies. As the audience of film lovers has grown and evolved, we have sought new ways to reach these individuals through curated partnerships and unique creative that can serve as a conversation starter in social spaces between this community and our client, Lincoln. Film is a core passion point of the Lincoln target.

Following our client's longstanding tradition of working with Hollywood, we partnered with film creators from Vimeo to Film Independent, as well as the Tribeca Film Festival in celebration of the today’s most creative films. Throughout this journey, we have been compelled by one of the few tenets of filmmaking that has remained constant in this rapidly changing landscape: great storytelling. By uncovering the combined potential of technology and artistry, we’ve also begun examining what the future holds for the medium and audiences alike. 

We call these our "Film Uncovered" stories. For nearly every partnership we have that involves a filmmaker (be it a partnership with Tribeca Film Festival or the making of a broadcast spot), we seek to peel back the layers to get to the values Lincoln holds dear: artistry and respect for individuality.

The goal of the partnerships is to reach new audiences who share the brand values in their own territory, while the goal of the content and creative is to give them authentic inside stories to explain the "hows" and "whys" behind the artistry of the film industry, providing unique and shareable bite-sized stories.

Producing these back stories around our broadcast spots and other campaigns has given us the added opportunity to target film fans with commercial content, reaching them through a shared interest that would not be possible with a broadcast spot alone.

Publishing

Here's how it works. While developing a partnership or sales campaign, we identify any filmmaker stories that could be uniquely interesting for our intended audience of film lovers. We produce those stories concurrent with the relative partnership or campaign, and publish to targeted audiences in social channels. Audiences who engage with the social posts are either led to the brand hub of Lincoln Now for the extended content, or they can click the associated hashtag #FilmUncovered to view all related content and conversation in that particular channel. 

When a particular product has been integrated in the respective campaign, we additionally incorporate content around the details of the product in a similar storytelling framework. The idea is that, if you're interested in the artistry of film, you'll be served content from Lincoln that is genuinely unique and compelling, and that content will lead you to even more film-related content from the brand, validating the brand's involvement. As you spend more time with the content, you'll also find more opportunities to explore the product, although it's never forced on the audience. 

We built an audience of several hundred thousand for Lincoln's social channels with this publishing strategy: subtly lead audiences to the luxury symbol (the car) through content that reflects a genuine interest in a shared passion: film. After all, without the lifestyle, the luxury item fails to symbolize much.

Partnerships & Campaigns