Ford was one of the main sponsors of Mela 2003 and the all-encompassing theme for the stands were 'Find out more about Ford'. Mark Cameron, diversity marketing manager said of the project: "As the event itself is a celebration of lifestyle, Ford's presence had to be high in entertainment value - tonally we wanted it to be amusing, confident and smart. We really wanted to create stands which were removed from the traditional corporate appearance of motorshows."
Peter Goodrick-Clarke one of the Imagination lead designers on the project added: "We wanted each stand to be expressive but also genuine. We researched many areas of Asian culture, contacting various designers before we started working on the stands. We looked into traditional colours and various festival related designs. We designed huge coloured banners for each stand with mendhi-inspired graphic features on each one - a different tattoo represents each Ford car on display. Special one-off designs have also been created for the stands. On the Lifestyle Zone stand a specially designed Bollywood poster has been created. 'The Wheels of Love' is a fictional Bollywood film, which sees the Indian heroine torn between to suitors - in this case, the two Ford cars on the stand."
Ruth Cain, Imagination account manager also added: "This was a great project to work on as the designs were so colourful and passionate, this is totally different from corporate stands you might usually see at other events! It would be easy for a large organization such as Ford to replicate its presence at Motor Show and have a standard vehicle display at Mela 2003. Imagination has worked with Ford's Asian employees to produce an interactive Ford experience synonymous to the grass-roots of British Asian lifestyle".
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
