• by Karl Greenberg , February 12, 2011

On Feb. 17, Ford's Western sales region will put the capstone on a program it launched last year to promote the Ford Fiesta by promoting new bands. The "Gimme the Gig" competition, which started in July, is a seven-month-long combination Web program and traveling concert series that also happened to put the Fiesta on the ground at the concerts, at "Fiesta Lounges."

The effort centered on video submissions from bands looking to perform original songs, and online voting from the bands' fans, with total vote numbers helping narrow the field to 10 finalists. During the past half year, Ford has held a series of concerts around the West featuring the bands vying for the prize. It all culminates in a concert at Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angeles, showcasing seven finalist bands winnowed down from some 2,500 bands that initially applied.

Tom Grill, sales and marketing manager for Ford's Western market area and a former marketer for both Lincoln and Mercury, brought in Don Was, a Grammy Award-winning producer whose relationship with Ford goes back 10 years. Was produced the music featuring Paula Cole for Mercury's 2004 campaign "New Doors Opened."

The winner of the "Gimme the Gig" contest -- who will be announced at the end of the performance -- gets to work with Was, who will produce two original tracks, with production, studio fees, remixing and engineering all covered by Ford. And the band keeps ownership rights of the two recordings.

Grill says some 250,000 people voted online during the seven-month program, with finalists announced last week on the competition's site and Facebook page.

"We ran the Fiesta tour in about 75 locations throughout the Western part of the U.S., in five regions, including Denver, Seattle, all over California, Arizona," says Grill. He says the Web site for the program went viral, and even though bands had to be from the region to participate, or at least be physically present at events, "what amazed us was the amount of pure eyeballs going to that site. It was definitely regional, but we got fans from all over the world who wanted to apply -- we had a Russian band, South American bands; we said, 'You can, but we need to see your face on the tour.'"

The program is part of a national push in which Ford's five market areas got funds to do regional programs, says Grill, who said Ford had Fiestas at all stops, as well as product experts, and test drives. "In the end, we had 14,000 hand-raisers from the event."

Ford will do live streaming from the The Whiskey A Go Go venue on Givemethegig.com. "Our local station, KTLA, about two weeks ago expressed interest, so we are filming in HD from 8 pm to 9 pm during sweeps," he says.

Grill says he will not do a similar program for Ford Focus. "The natural inclination was to extend, but based on demographics, we may hold off for another program down the road."