AD OF THE WEEK: FORD FOCUS ELECTRIFIES THE YAHOO! HOMEPAGE

By Yahoo on Jun 29, 2012 

Ford has pulled up to the Yahoo! homepage so you can plug into its cross-country campaign for the 2012 Focus Electric.  Electric blue butterflies swarm the Yahoo! homepage to break open the cocoon of Ford's first fully electric passenger vehicle. This auto-initiated animation happens the first time the user arrives on the homepage and is frequency-capped at one butterfly effect per user per day. From there, the ad flits apart into separate graphical units: the 1280x1024 wallpaper, the 300x250 pane on the right, and the 970x50 north banner. The latter two units provide the option to expand the ad into a video pane that merges seamlessly with the wallpaper.

A two-minute video fed by Yahoo! Screen introduces the campaign:"Ten Celebrities. Ten Cities. Fully Charged." Three two-person teams will explore the hometowns of 10 celebrities while the celebs themselves are the guides and clue-givers. Each winning team then goes to Los Angeles to compete for two Focus Electrics, one for each winner. The expanded pane also has a handy rich media map with the 10 cities marked in green. Rolling over them provides the driver's side option to watch that particular episode on Yahoo! Screen. The "About" tab opens the virtual showroom, where you can rotate the Focus Electric and get the scoop on some of its key features.

True to Ford's tagline of "Go Further," the Focus Electric ad drives (quietly) much further than most rich media executions. And like the best ads in the digital space, it floats the experience in a fun, interactive way so the user can hop in and take the wheel.

Click here to unplug and drive.