Ford’s global agency, GTB, has launched the new Ford Edge SUV with a £40m European campaign built around an eight minute film, Le Fantôme (The Ghost), directed by Jake Scott.
The film stars Mads Mikkelsen, who starred as villain, Le Chiffre in the James Bond film, Casino Royale, and will appear in Star Wars: Rogue One and Marvel’s Dr Strange this year.
This is not his only brand film either. In February 2015, he starred in The Call for urban furniture and furnishings chain, BoConcept.
In Le Fantôme, Mikkelsen plays a hitman who is pursuing a couple whose identities have been obliterated through a witness protection scheme after their evidence sends a crime kingpin to jail (…although they have taken their Ford Edge with them.) At the climactic moment when he is about to attack the couple he has been stalking, he is distracted by the glimpse of the new Ford.
“Everyday we make choices, choices that shape our lives and sometimes the lives of others,” Mikkelsen states. He then breaks into the couple’s garage to admire the car.
The car moves him so much that he gives up his fee and even protects the couple from a second assassin, a woman, by swapping their Edge for an old two-seat motorbike and two plane tickets to Peru.
Yes, the plot has its silly moments, sadly the car’s presence being one of them. Perhaps that was deliberate. Everything else about the film, especially its visual oomph (production by RSA Films), is gorgeous.
“To truly represent the new Ford Edge – our flagship SUV in Europe – Le Fantôme is a short film executed to the highest standards. Mads Mikkelsen and Jake Scott were natural choices to deliver a cinematic experience as refined and compelling as the vehicle itself,” said Roelant de Waard, vice president, marketing, sales & service, Ford of Europe, in the launch statement.
The film was written by GTB creative heads, Julian Watt and Bryn Attewell, and filmed in Croatia, using the same location as Game of Thrones.
It was launched online and went to air in Italy first. It is now running on TV and in cinemas across Europe, supported by OOH and all digital and social platforms.
Credits:
Agency: GTB
Chief creative officer: Julian Watt
Executive creative director: Bryn Attewell
Creative director: Peter Hvid
Producer: Romila Sanassy
Group business director: Sarah Rosser
Account director: Sian Patrick
Planning partner: Stephen Wallace
Production company: RSA Films
Director: Jake Scott
Executive producer: Cindy Burnay
Editor: Joe Guest @ Final Cut
DOP: Mark Patten
Production designer: Joseph Bennett
Photographer: Nigel Harniman
Client: Ford of Europe
Vice president, marketing: Matthew Van Dyke
Marketing communications director: Anthony Ireson
Brand content manager: Lyn West
SUV brand content manager: Chris Rushton
