Ford Creates Prime-Time NBC Reality Series to Launch New Escape

Ford Motor Company has created six episodes of an hour-long reality show called "Escape Routes" that will run on NBC beginning later this month to promote Ford 's redesigned Escape.

Rather than buying the time from NBC, Ford handed over the show and ceded all ad revenue to the network, stipulating only that Ford will be the exclusive automotive advertiser, said Crystal Worthem, brand content and alliances manager for Ford. It appears to be the first time an automaker has used prime-time TV to introduce a car this way. But marketers have increasingly been creating their own content, even in expensive areas like prime time. Procter & Gamble teamed up with Wal-Mart Stores to produce a made-for-TV movie, "Secrets of the Mountain," in 2010 for NBC, and Golf Magazine turned to TV to help generate some new business by purchasing two hours of airtime on CBS to broadcast a golf competition. "Escape Routes" tracks six two-person teams who take part "in a coast-to-coast series of spontaneous adventures and interactive challenges using their Escapes," according to Ford