How do you capture the attention of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and catapult your budding advertising agency into the spotlight?
A couple of recent college grads in Los Angeles can answer that.
See also: It's Not Just Tesla: Why Dealers Are Wary of Electric Cars
James Khabushani and RJ Collins, co-CEOs of nascent ad agency Everdream Pictures, made a spec ad for the high-end electric car company Tesla. Musk, the company’s founder and chief product architect, was so impressed with the unsolicited work that he tweeted a link to the YouTube video and said he would likely hire the creative firm for future projects. Southern California-based Tesla also posted the commercial on the brand’s Facebook page and Twitter and Instagram accounts.
Just discovered a great Tesla ad made by 2 recent college grads. I love it! http://t.co/20dPRD9yrJ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2014
The one-minute spot, dubbed “Modern Spaceship,” combines two of Musk’s favorite things: cars and rockets. Maybe that’s what initially caught his eye. But the ad itself, produced on a shoestring $1,500 budget, serves as a technically proficient calling card for the Everdream team, whose executives said they’re fans of Tesla and its green mission.
Musk, who ranks No. 158 on Forbes' Billionaire’s List this year, also owns SpaceX, a spacecraft company, and SolarCity, a solar panel designer and installer. Forbes reports that Musk's fortune has more than tripled in the last year, partly because stock in Tesla Motors is up 625%. Despite its growth, the brand doesn’t have a media budget and has never run ads. (It’s also mired in battles with car dealers in several states who want to block it from selling directly to consumers).
Everdream’s 20-something executives, fresh out of the University of Southern California, wrote and produced “Modern Spaceship” several months ago with an eye toward courting Tesla’s account and introducing their young firm. They wanted to show what they could do with little financing and lots of technical know-how. The minuscule budget, incidentally, paid mostly for travel, food and lodging for the shoot at a Tesla owner’s home near San Francisco.
The homemade spot, not at all rough around the edges, features a young boy behind the wheel of a Tesla in his dad’s garage acting like he’s flying a spaceship. Special effects give the impression of his success, which must have warmed the heart of Tesla’s founder, who has said he wants to “make humanity Interplanetary.”
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