BMW FILMS (Analysis)
The way BMW began to be perceived from a niche foreign car to one of the hottest luxury brands in USA in the 70’s is all thanks to the ‘Ultimate Driving Machine’ campaign which features BMWs being driven across country estates, parked in front of huge mansions and pulling up to black-tie affairs. Their position during this campaign involved a focus on prestige and performance, which successfully appealed to young urban professionals. However, in the 80’s USA’s luxury car market experienced a shift and BMW found itself with an outdated “yuppie car” image. Furthermore, Asian competitors such as Honda, Nissan and Toyota had entered the market. These Japanese cars offered a similar quality and service at lower price points – their service was in fact, better due to the fact that they were sold by small exclusive dealerships.
Matters only got worse in the 90’s, but instead of withdrawing from the USA completely, BMW made some moves to reinvigorate itself – it relied on non-traditional advertising such as product placements and later, in the early 2000’s, produced a series of short films on the internet showing what makes a BMW, a BMW. The best directors in Hollywood, such as Alejandro Inarritu, Ang Lee and Guy Ritchie to name a few, were chosen to pick one script each to turn into a six minute short film. They were given complete creative freedom.
The BMW Films marketing campaign has been very successful due to it’s non-traditional nature which has a more targeted approach at reaching its customers. An average BMW customer is 46 years old, male, probably married with no children with a median income of $150,000. BMW customers also tended to be leaders, who liked to work hard and play hard and were willing to pay more to get an absolutely perfect product as apposed to a very good product. Considering that 85% of BMW purchasers were on the internet before they bought their first BMW, it is evident that a major portion of their target consumers spend much of their time on the internet and as a result communicating to the market via the internet makes a lot of sense for BMW.
BMW Films were created with the intent of entertainment and not just advertising, they were hoping whatever they lost in audience size, they made up for in involvement – they wanted these films to be remembered 10 years down the road. The five films cost an overall $15 million and the disruptive quality of BMW Films garnered over 9 million film views and lots of stellar reviews that were featured in the entertainment sections of the likes of The New York Times and Time! That means that it cost BMW $1.67 per view, not including other free earned media. The press activity was ten times of that which was anticipated and led to pass-alongs. In contrast, if it had been aired during Superbowl, the cost per viewer may have been $0.03-0.04 per viewer which at face value looks a lot cheaper. However, this doesn’t give the complete picture as each of these films were 6-12 minutes long, and the average Superbowl commercial is 30 seconds long. Averaging the time per movie comes out to 9 minutes which is 540 seconds – the same as 18 Superbowl ads each 30 seconds long. Therefore, the actual cost per viewer based on time comes up to $0.72 for a Superbowl ad. So, the difference is not as significant as initially anticipated. Furthermore, the 30 second trailers that were prepared for television audiences may be played during an event like Superbowl in order to further generate curiosity in people - as suggested by BMW, it would be best to milk the trailers of the existing short films in a prime time spot such as during the Superbowl and make them available to a wider audience, considering how inexpensive it is to reach the viewers.
It certainly met the brand’s communication objectives by communicating directly to it’s target consumer who are more likely to be young, sporty and spend more time on the internet. BMW consumers were more likely to be repeat customers with a high sense of brand loyalty and therefore, engaging with these individuals in a way that is beyond just advertising is bound to add more to the brand image and longevity in terms of impact of the campaign.