Case Study for Agency
03-1015019-501

BMW:
Situation: BMW's performance positioning was the target everybody else
in the luxury car category aimed at. BMW sales were at an all-time
high, but the challenge was to continue growing in the face of an
assault from the category.

Marketing Challenge: Grow the number of BMW intenders, attract new
people to the franchise, and leapfrog the category in technology and
marketing.

Solution: Fact one: BMW's best customers were watching less and less
television. Fact two: BMW's audience was the most web-centric in
cardom, and 85 % of them visit the web before making purchase
decisions. This lead us to break out of the "tv commercial" box and
develop the idea with our client of BMWFilms.com, a website featuring
short films shot by leading Hollywood directors, and starring a variety
of BMW cars. The series, called "The Hire" and starring Clive Owen, was
the centerpiece of BMW's marketing in 2001.

Results: The marketing community has named the campaign "Best
Interactive Campaign of 2001", "Best Integrated Campaign of 2001", and
awarded it the Grand Prix in Sales Promotion for "Best Campaign of the
Year." Meanwhile, the press was forced to create new words for this new
form of communication. Brand-casting. Advertainment. The New York Times
said "we've seen the future of advertising, and this is it."
But the best results were the 11 million downloads of the films, which
helped BMW create a database that's unmatched in the industry. And
sales continued in 2001 to the highest levels ever.