Lincoln Debuts First-Ever Twitter-Generated Super Bowl Ad

DEARBORN, Mich., Jan. 31, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Lincoln, the luxury automotive brand, today unveiled its Super Bowl ad, the first-ever commercial written entirely through social media with consumers participating on Twitter. Jimmy Fallon asked his followers to tweet responses to his questions about road trips full of unexpected events, which ultimately created the script.

Over a three-day period in December, consumers were asked to provide their most outrageous road trip experiences 140 characters at a time. The best contributions were chosen from more than 6,000 tweets to create a 30-second spot that will run during the third quarter of the big game and tease a long-form 90-second version available on SteertheScript.com. 

This Super Bowl ad is another major piece in the Lincoln reinvention strategy as the brand attracts a new market of individual-minded luxury consumers. Lincoln recently launched the all-new 2013 MKZ and will deliver three more vehicles in the next four years to appeal to these new luxury consumers who have emerged as a powerful economic force, already making up close to 25 percent of all luxury automobile purchases. 

"A major element of all successful transformations is creating awareness and conversation among many more consumers than just the intended client audience," said Matt VanDyke, Director, Global Lincoln. "True to our brand's new vision to be surprising and different, we approached developing this commercial in a new and revolutionary way – we invited the world to help drive this story and now look forward to this work helping continue the conversation about Lincoln."

Consumers who had tweets that made it into the storyline will make a cameo appearance in the Super Bowl commercial as extras in the final scene. The tweets that drove the final narrative included the following:

• @karinarosewhite - We drove passed an alpaca farm, a few of them were meandering on the highway and my sister screamed, "It's the Alpacalypse!" #steerthescript
• @debdef - #SteertheScript Picked up a German hitchhiker who came to America to study farming!?! Drove him back to Austin to meet my friends.
• @AllenFabijan - #SteertheScript Thousands of turtles crossing the road in FL. Dad stops, so did a huge scary Harley gang! Us and the gang played checkers!
• @Will_Stenner – Drove through a movie set in Palemdale, CA didn't realize it. Got out and enjoyed the catered food #SteertheScript
• @AdinaSpivak – Two separate strangers proposed marriage twice in one day #SteertheScript ... incidentally I was on my way to (someone else's) wedding

The long form of the Twitter story available online at SteertheScript.com will feature the NFL's all-time leading rusher and three-time Super Bowl champion Emmitt Smith.  Smith contributed his voice to the online ad and plays the radio DJ in the opening scene. In addition, there are cameo appearances by hip-hop artist Rev Run and actor Wil Wheaton. 

"Using the power of the Super Bowl to continue the conversation about Lincoln makes a great deal of sense," said Smith. "As someone whose success on 'Dancing with the Stars' was dependent on the same kind of fan interaction, I am delighted to be working with a brand that places such emphasis on allowing their supporters to be involved in the creative process." 

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