What kind of crazy car company would willingly smash up, crash and shoot at their beautiful new models to highlight how dynamic and desirable they are?
Way back in 2001, BMW made a bold move by turning to the most notable film directors of the time. BMW wanted to create brilliant content that helped them stand out from the crowd.
Under the careful supervision of Guy Ritchie, Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Tony and Ridley Scott, BMW came up with the idea to create a series of eight James Bond-style short films named, The Hire.
Clive Owen, in the role of a skilled professional driver, drives a variety of BMWs while transporting some very familiar individuals such as Madonna and Gary Oldman.
The best part of this campaign is that the videos were intentionally created to look like big screen action movies, rather than just TV commercials.
- BMW Films by BWM
Launched 2001; Returned 2016
And it was a smash hit, receiving more than 100 million views, which in pre-YouTube days is a truly massive number.
If that’s not enough, “The Hire” also received the Highest honour of Cannes International Advertising Festival in 2002.
Image Source; BMW Blog
But, as we know, most importantly with automotive marketing it’s about the bottom line and BMW did very well indeed, in fact sales increased by a whopping 12.5% resulting in a new sales record.
It’s been 16 years since and other brands have also taken on this approach. It’s not uncommon for car ads to look like scenes that could have come directly from Hollywood movies.
And yet The Hire is still considered to be an icon of automotive advertisements.
And luckily for us, BMW returned with the sequel, released in 2016 for the 15th anniversary of the series.
The Escape, starring the very same Clive Owen, unsurprisingly received excellent feedback. Once again proving BMW are still leading the way with great automotive advertising.
To create really stand out content Automotive brands must not only do something completely different, but also be able to use the context and deep understanding of the venue where the campaigns will be displayed.
Understanding your audience is crucial and content must be tailored to reach and engage them.
We operate in a noisy space and people are harder to connect with as attention is swallowed up, especially with mobile devices.
While these big events are great for grabbing attention on a large scale, creating engaging content doesn’t need to be so big or expensive.
Bespoke content created around the great things happing on a local level at retailers, beautifully immersed with brand news, is a proven way to build an engaged community.
Our HTML5 iDealership Magazine 2.0 allows you to shout about the great things happening at your retailers and your business while building long term engagement and enquiries that convert.
If you want to discuss how a content marketing strategy will help you win in an increasingly competitive world please get in touch for a chat on 020 7287 9233 or drop us an email on info@goldsanddigital.com.