• by Karl Greenberg , June 9, 2011

Ford is running a social media promotion, the BET Awards Ford Focus Sweepstakes, tied to its sponsorship of the June 26 awards show.

The automaker is dangling a 2012 Ford Focus as grand prize in a cross-branded program that uses Twitter as part of the final qualification process for selecting the winner of the vehicle during the live show broadcast.

Once the entry period closes, those who signed up for the chance to win the car -- a "Titanium" version of the new Focus -- at www.fordurban.com and www.bet.com/FordFocus will get a Twitter message from BET confirming their eligibility along with the official hashtag to tweet about the "BET Awards 11."

According to Ford and BET, during the show, BET will highlight selected tweets from qualified entrants and then randomly select one potential grand-prize winner from among all eligible entrants during the live broadcast. The winner's name will be announced during the awards show.

Said Shawn Lollie, Ford manager of multicultural marketing: "The opportunity to not only showcase, but to also give away, a Focus during one of the top five cable award show programs was a natural fit for us ... a large number of young adults are using social media tools like Twitter in order to engage with their peers on a daily basis. We thought that incorporating Twitter as part of the vehicle sweepstakes would further resonate with our core audience as well as provide an additional level of exposure for the brand."

Ford's other involvement with the awards show includes product placement at the venue -- the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Ford will have the Focus on the red carpet during pre-show festivities and will also run several before the show and over the course of the weekend, including a backstage area called the Ford Focus Social Media Lounge. The lounge will be the locus for entertainment bloggers who will do interviews with celebrities there, and hammer out updates.