A Film on the Trucking Life Also Promotes a Big Rig

“Drive and Deliver,” a documentary film about truck drivers that is scheduled to make its debut next week, looks like a Hollywood movie and is directed by a Hollywood director. The marketing campaign resembles a Hollywood effort, too, with a red-carpet premiere, screenings, plans for charitable donations and a contest for student filmmakers.

But “Drive and Deliver” is not being bankrolled by a big studio like Warner Brothers, a smaller one like Lionsgate or even an independent filmmaker. Rather, the estimated $2 million budget is being underwritten by a division of the Navistar International Corporation to help promote a new long-haul truck, the LoneStar, to be shipped to dealers in October with a sticker price of $120,000 to $140,000.

Navistar International will spend perhaps an additional $3 million to stimulate interest in the documentary, out of a total marketing budget for the LoneStar estimated at $15 million.

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“Drive and Deliver,” which runs about 45 minutes, follows three long-haul truckers as they travel around the country in the spring, making deliveries with early-production LoneStar models on loan from Navistar International.

The nitty-gritty of their lives is chronicled in segments that are interspersed with beauty shots of the LoneStars as well as frank discussions by the truckers of their backgrounds, families, dreams and disappointments. The soundtrack includes music by Merle Haggard, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Marshall Tucker Band and Hank Williams.

“Drive and Deliver” is another example of a booming trend in marketing known as branded entertainment. Instead of running commercials or providing products to be placed in the backgrounds of scenes, advertisers become involved in the content of movies and TV shows.

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The documentary was produced for Navistar International by Fathom Communications, an agency owned by the Omnicom Group that specializes in branded entertainment, online advertising and direct marketing. The movie is being previewed on a Web site that is also produced by Fathom (internationaltrucks.com/film). “The insight was that truckers are very passionate about their jobs and want to tell their stories,” said Mark Leger, managing director at the Chicago office of Fathom. “They want someone to amplify their voice and become their advocate.

“The film is a platform to create indelible interactions between the long-haul trucking community and the brand,” he added, “and elevate the conversation beyond products and product specs.”

Navistar International joins a lengthening list of companies in taking part in branded entertainment. Others include Chrysler, Del Monte, Ford Motor, General Motors, Heineken USA, Tommy Hilfiger, Liberty Mutual and Unilever. The goal is to counter consumers’ increasing ability to zap, zip through or otherwise avoid conventional advertisements by embedding the pitches in the programming.

“Unlike a lot of consumer companies, we don’t have to debate how much we spend on TV,” said Al Saltiel, vice president for marketing for the truck group at the Navistar division of Navistar International in Warrenville, Ill., “because the answer is zero.”

“This is about generating word of mouth, positive word of mouth” for the LoneStar, he added, which is intended to become the top-of-the-line truck sold by the company.

The movie, filmed in a cinema vérité style, was directed by Brett Morgen, whose credits include “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” a documentary about the Hollywood producer Robert Evans, and “Nimrod Nation,” a series for the Sundance Channel cable network about the high school basketball team in a Michigan town.

“There were hundreds of casting sessions, and Brett did his own casting,” said Richard Linnett, director for entertainment marketing at the Fathom office in New York, who said he accompanied Mr. Morgen for the filming for “5,250 miles, 17 states and 21 days.”

CONTINUED : “Everybody was my boss, and I never had a boss.”

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