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The Facebook contest film is after the jump.

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When organizations are interested in our brand film content they often ask how they can measure ROI for it. One of the first answers we give is – flexibility and durability of use. When you craft a traditional :30 spot, the use and shelf life of that piece of communication is very limited. With our brand films approach we can leverage the content to drive different initiatives and program offline and online channels. It’s all about designing in use scenarios upfront. As a production company / agency hybrid we have the ability to project and exercise content strategy. The metrics that are built on the back of the strategy are unique in every case.

When we looked at content gathered for the Southwest piece we saw opportunities beyond the first use edit. First use was a 40th anniversary video that rally’s internal stake holders. But the content is about the love people for have for Southwest and more specifically what they “like” about it. This type of documentary gold scores high on the “authenticity meter”. In a world where organizations need to be increasingly transparent and engaged in an honest dialogue with their customers this style of content connects. The edits above are simply speculative proof points.

Thanks to Andrea Perry for use of her track in the Facebook piece. And just to remind everyone – this isn’t a real Facebook contest. Yet. But we still encourage you to like Southwest on Facebook all the same. It’s, “Better than Farmville.”

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Fifteen years ago we got our first taste of working on the Southwest Airlines business. For me it began with a job as a traffic manager at GSD&M. For Marty it was as a junior art director at GSD&M doing TV spots about searching for flights online.

Being asked by GSD&M/Idea City to produce and direct a short Brand Film that highlighted the airlines 40th anniversary was a lot like coming home. We shot on location at Austin Bergstrom International Airport for one day. Believe it or not the TSA was very helpful. So, too, was the entire SWA staff at the airport, taking a film crew in stride gracefully as anything else. All of which helped us turn this piece around about as fast as SWA does their planes.

These are the LUV stories of five real people told in their own words. There are doubtless tens of thousands more who could sit down and say very similar things about SWA. That’s one hell of a resume. Congrats to SWA on 40 years of rocking the industry and putting customers first. That’s a concept that ages quite well.

Special thanks to Rob and Ellie at Static West for hammering out this killer little music track. Thanks also to Bill Bayne and David Crawford who creative directed the piece from GSD&M as well as agency producer Maria Ivicic.