A noteworthy film gotten out by the Ford concern showed an automobile being erected in two and a half minutes, when it was speeded off on its own power. Henry Ford also recently devised an interesting plan which combined news with advertising. Each week he arranges to have the important events in Detroit filmed and offers the picture to exhibitors throughout Michigan. In Detroit alone fifty theaters show the picture. Henry Ford not only gets himself known as a booster of his home town, but in addition, avails himself of the weekly opportunity to boost his cars.
The Pierce Arrow Company had a film produced setting forth in a convincing manner the powers and capabilities of their autos. You can not demonstrate a motor truck on any street, and this is where the film triumphs.
The Straker Squire Company, an English firm, not so long ago introduced, within the compass of a single film, the making of the various parts of a modern automobile, erecting a car in sixty seconds, trying it out on rough roads, work tracks and on timber support. Then came a hill-climbing test and racing cars speeding at ninety-eight miles per hour. Lastly, the 980 employees were seen leaving the works.
The reel depicting the Diamler Motor Works at Coventry, England, was distributed in a different manner. The film was on show at a recent London auto exposition and caused a hit because it was an interesting novelty. This plan could also be allied in connection with future auto expositions held at the Grand Central Palace, New York, by enterprising firms.
And if you want to boost your tires, here follow some successful methods.
The De Laski and Thropp Circular Woven Tire Company put out a film dealing with their methods of manufacturing tires. It revealed also that it only takes five minutes to complete one. This film was used in connection with their campaign for capturing business in foreign countries.
In the fifty motoring centers in Britain, the Goodrich Company has been conducting film lectures extending over a year. The film was entitled “From Tire to Tire,” and in an entertaining way motorists were educated from the time the rubber was gathered from the tree until the tire was on the auto. In the course of the lectures, which were attended by large audiences, much practical information was imparted on the use and care of tires.
A story within a story. Did you ever think it was possible? If you want to approach an audience by means of entertainment instead of education, then it can be done. A trained scenario writer is capable of weaving your advertising story into a comedy or dramatic plot. It has been accomplished, as witness the “silent representative” of a Birmingham concern manufacturing a patent dual rim for motor cars. The plot concerned a gang of thieves who robbed a bank messenger of $25,000. While fleeing in an auto they are held up by the police, but escape after a struggle. The police then chase them in an auto. The crooks, however, come to a halt through one of their tires being punctured, and the police meet with the same misfortune. It so happens that the latter’s car is equipped with the Patent Quick Change Dual Rim, by which they complete the repairs before the thieves are half through with theirs. This allows them to capture the thieves with ease.
If you intend working the campaign in conjunction with your dealers, it is best to get up a list of them in order of territory and arrange for each to retain the film for a day. They then persuade, for a small consideration, the best-class theater in the town to show the film at the evening performances, after which it is despatched to the dealer in the next nearest town.