Well it may be the end of the competition but it's just the beginning of another road of adventures for the GV Ford Team at Grand Valley State University. As of December 8th, the end of the social media competition of the Go Further campaign, our team TRIPLED the initial goal of 1,500 views on YouTube and received over 5,000 views and still counting. At the awards ceremony last Thursday, GV Ford Team was announced the winner, received a large novelty check, and was given the opportunity to work along side Team Detroit and Ford to re-shoot, edit, and publish our video on the official Go Further series YouTube channel.
The entire experience working with Ford and Team Detroit has been a huge eye opener for me and winning the contest was simply a cherry on top! This project allowed me to put my creative license to work and apply my knowledge of planning a campaign from start to finish. Collaborating with other students who carry various majors, backgrounds, and expertise has expanded my knowledge of the campaign production process beyond what I ever imagined. It was a chance for our team to really showcase our talents and put them out into the creative industry. Given the chance to show what we can do, our team ran far and beyond expectations. Each role was fulfilled within our team and I don't think any other candidate could have replaced them. I took away what it takes to work in a team, how to overcome challenges and meet deadlines, and most importantly that there are individuals who continue to go further everyday right beneath our noses.
David Milarch’s story is astonishing not only that he was able to bounce back from hitting rock bottom but he took his second chance as a way to save himself and our planet. He has dedicated his life to preserving and restoring the planet’s natural filter system by cloning the largest ancient giants of the forest. Experts told him this process was impossible but David never took ‘no’ for an answer and now 20 years later, he has cloned thousands of trees and in recent news has shipped trees to the Eden project in England. The chance to work and get to know David Milarch has been a story in itself. His Bob Segar tunes and dance moves can light up a room and his endless stories and tales of his journeys can keep you chatting for hours. David is an individual that will constantly put others before himself. Through the entire Ford Go Further series David never wished fame and fortune for himself but hopes to bring fame to these giant trees. David’s organization, Archangel Ancient Archive is unique to Ford through the idea of sustainability and preparing our future. His story has helped myself in preparation for the social media campaign in terms of targeting key influencers and organizations that would be interested and impacted by his story.
My initial role within the team was the Producer and PR gal. I was responsible for keeping the team on track during the video shoot in Copemish and once the video was launched I was the main spokesperson for the campaign, contacting media daily, maintaining social media platforms, and setting up interviews. The public relations process was such a learning experience for me and provided me with a little slice of what working with the media actually entails and the challenge of selling a story and engaging the public. Throughout the campaign, I wrote and framed posts between Facebook and Twitter and also created Vox Pox interviews among GV campus to engage external publics. As my team prepares a case study, I will gladly share our success story in a few weeks of the statistics, evaluations, and goals we met through the campaign.
So what's next?
With winning the competition our team opened a whole new set of doors to opportunities. As far as what the future holds for us is a chance to work right along side an established agency, Team Detroit, in creating a national campaign. I am most excited to be a voice in the final project and again work together as a team to complete an amazing project. It'll be unique to compare the organization and planning process between our GV Ford Team and Team Detroit. The director of videography and David Milarch, the video subject traveled to Creston City, CA to shoot additional footage of he Big Trees and our entire team will travel to Detroit in January to work with Team Detroit creative team in editing the final video. The final video should be launched early February, so stay tuned!
The entire experience working with Ford and Team Detroit has been a huge eye opener for me and winning the contest was simply a cherry on top! This project allowed me to put my creative license to work and apply my knowledge of planning a campaign from start to finish. Collaborating with other students who carry various majors, backgrounds, and expertise has expanded my knowledge of the campaign production process beyond what I ever imagined. It was a chance for our team to really showcase our talents and put them out into the creative industry. Given the chance to show what we can do, our team ran far and beyond expectations. Each role was fulfilled within our team and I don't think any other candidate could have replaced them. I took away what it takes to work in a team, how to overcome challenges and meet deadlines, and most importantly that there are individuals who continue to go further everyday right beneath our noses.
David Milarch’s story is astonishing not only that he was able to bounce back from hitting rock bottom but he took his second chance as a way to save himself and our planet. He has dedicated his life to preserving and restoring the planet’s natural filter system by cloning the largest ancient giants of the forest. Experts told him this process was impossible but David never took ‘no’ for an answer and now 20 years later, he has cloned thousands of trees and in recent news has shipped trees to the Eden project in England. The chance to work and get to know David Milarch has been a story in itself. His Bob Segar tunes and dance moves can light up a room and his endless stories and tales of his journeys can keep you chatting for hours. David is an individual that will constantly put others before himself. Through the entire Ford Go Further series David never wished fame and fortune for himself but hopes to bring fame to these giant trees. David’s organization, Archangel Ancient Archive is unique to Ford through the idea of sustainability and preparing our future. His story has helped myself in preparation for the social media campaign in terms of targeting key influencers and organizations that would be interested and impacted by his story.
My initial role within the team was the Producer and PR gal. I was responsible for keeping the team on track during the video shoot in Copemish and once the video was launched I was the main spokesperson for the campaign, contacting media daily, maintaining social media platforms, and setting up interviews. The public relations process was such a learning experience for me and provided me with a little slice of what working with the media actually entails and the challenge of selling a story and engaging the public. Throughout the campaign, I wrote and framed posts between Facebook and Twitter and also created Vox Pox interviews among GV campus to engage external publics. As my team prepares a case study, I will gladly share our success story in a few weeks of the statistics, evaluations, and goals we met through the campaign.
So what's next?
With winning the competition our team opened a whole new set of doors to opportunities. As far as what the future holds for us is a chance to work right along side an established agency, Team Detroit, in creating a national campaign. I am most excited to be a voice in the final project and again work together as a team to complete an amazing project. It'll be unique to compare the organization and planning process between our GV Ford Team and Team Detroit. The director of videography and David Milarch, the video subject traveled to Creston City, CA to shoot additional footage of he Big Trees and our entire team will travel to Detroit in January to work with Team Detroit creative team in editing the final video. The final video should be launched early February, so stay tuned!