Cadillac Under 5
Turning a five-second performance claim into a participatory entertainment platform.
Five seconds is barely enough time for a story to begin. Cadillac had a performance truth that fit inside that window: three V-Series cars could go from zero to sixty in less than five seconds. The opportunity was to turn that fact into something people could make, share, and remember.
I led the five-second film festival experience and oversaw its website production, creative development, and content development. That work sat within a cohesive five-person senior leadership team, including Arc's CCO and creative leader, which guided the broader campaign.
What can you do in under five?
A performance claim became a creative constraint, then an invitation.
The answer was a five-second film challenge, giving every participant the same small, demanding canvas. The time limit echoed the engineering achievement while opening the idea to anyone with a story.
From teaser to product
The teaser opened with Chili Palmer as host. The product experience kept V-Series performance, model detail, short films, and campaign updates within reach.
A cultural stage for a five-second idea
The Be Cool partnership gave the idea a cultural stage. Characters hosted the experience, F. Gary Gray appeared as a celebrity judge, and our launch plan began at Sundance before continuing through the Super Bowl and the film's release.
The invitation moved into public view
We extended the five-second invitation through film-school outreach, outdoor, television, web advertising, and PR. Our horizontal and portrait executions made the rule legible at a glance.
One rule. One connected experience.
The platform held product, prizes, contest entry, finalists, celebrity judges, and the public film gallery together into one connected experience. Every part answered to the same five-second rule.
Named entries, playback, replay, and next-film controls gave participant work a life beyond submission. The gallery became an entertainment experience people could browse.
Participation led somewhere tangible
The landing and prize paths kept entry, V-Series, filmmaking, partner content, and reward together. A Cadillac CTS-V went to the grand-prize winner, a Be Cool premiere to first-place winners, and recognition to finalists.
CAMPAIGN RESULTS
Five seconds. Participation at scale.
Under 5 turned a simple creative constraint into a national invitation. In less than two weeks, the campaign generated 2,650 film submissions. The home page received nearly one million views, cumulative page views across the site reached 2.5 million, and 43,000 people requested dealer information.
- 2,650
- films submitted in less than two weeks
- 2.5M
- cumulative page views across the site
- 43,000
- requests for dealer information
- 358%
- increase in Cadillac.com traffic
During the campaign, Cadillac.com traffic increased 358%, bringing 1.5 million more visitors to the site than during the same period a year earlier.
Recognition for the work
The recognition belongs to the work and the team.
Under 5 earned seven awards across campaign integration, branded entertainment, effectiveness, media strategy, consumer promotion, new media, and digital experience.
The campaign received Future Marketing Awards Gold for Best Campaign Integration Involving Film and Gold for Best Product or Brand Integration into a Film Project. It also earned EFFIE Awards Silver in Automobiles and Vehicles and Bronze in Media Strategy.
Additional honors included Promotion Marketing Association Reggie Awards Gold for New Media Promotion and Bronze for National Consumer Promotion with a budget over $5 million, along with PROMO's Interactive Marketing Award for Best Promotional Website in the business-to-consumer category.
The work also received a Clio Awards shortlist in Content and Contact and was named a Direct Marketing Association ECHO Awards finalist in Automotive / Multimedia / Integrated Media Consumer & Business-to-Business.
My leadership. Shared campaign authorship.
I led the film-festival experience, connecting the creative challenge, website, entertainment content, and public participation. Five senior leaders shared creative responsibility for the broader campaign.
Under 5 showed how a product truth could become a rule people wanted to play with. Five seconds became a creative brief, a public stage, and an invitation to join.
Continue to Creative Direction & Engagement, or return to Cadillac.com.