Volkswagen and AtomFilms Announce Marketing Alliance

Volkswagen of America and AtomFilms (http://www.atomfilms.com) announced a content syndication and sponsorship agreement today. AtomFilms will be providing a series of shorts for Volkswagen's website ( http://www.vw.com) to help portray the fun and light-hearted image it seeks. The films and "The Journey Tour" will be used to market Volkswagen to the college-age audience. The deal is the first example of a major worldwide brand syndicating Atom's content. AtomFilms is promoting this deal, with its combined online and offline brand exposure, as the deal that vindicated its business model.

"The content, syndication and sponsorship components of this relationship with Volkswagen are centered throughout our multiple online and offline platforms, ensuring that Atom was able to secure an alliance with a major global brand and evolve it into more than just a flurry of banner ads," stated Seth Levenson, AtomFilms Vice President of Sales, in a statement.

AtomFilms will be supplying vw.com with a selection of sixty short films over the next six months. The films are to be in the spirit of "The Journey", a film in which Eric Saperston chronicled his 8-year post-college journey across America in a VW bus. The vw.com line up will initially feature Atom shorts like 'Kung Pao Chicken' by Rich Kim, 'Angry Kid' episodes by Aardman Animations, 'Bad Bosses go to Hell' by Erin Cramer and 'Blind Date' by Matt Wheeldon.

Volkswagen will also be sponsoring Atom's Journey Tour. The Journey Tour will be showcasing Saperston's "The Journey" along with the music of Edwin McCain. In keeping with the mentality of its market, AtomFilms has simultaneously launched a "grassroots" marketing program, the Atom Mavericks Program. This program allows Atom enthusiasts to host short film screenings and promotions like The Journey Tour. To date about 250 "Mavericks" have agreed to host a screening of "The Journey" and other short films. AtomFilms has also selected four "Mavericks" to travel together in a VW bus to college campuses ahead of the screenings and promote the film.