To study BMW as a brand, we first need to point out that the web presence is not just a for selling products. It is also a ‘vehicle’ to position the brand and satisfies their goals with poise.
BMW is considered as one of the leading producers of luxury and state of the art vehicles for many years. According to a noticeable amount of people, the brand is the best car producer worldwide. Located in Munich, German car manufacturer builds its presence as magnificent in style as well as supervising comfort.
To create a well-organized and successful marketing plan, business managers of the brand should figure out the varying facts of the marketing mix and determine the precise market segmentation in order to understand the of customer purchasing behavior. So, BMW initiated the goal of segmenting the premium market by optimizing the proper fit between the purchasing behavior of customers and the marketing mix to boost sales to the segment.
“BMW is fortunate-we don’t have too much of a dilemma as to what we’re going to call our cars.” – Jim McDowell, Vice President of Marketing at BMW
The fact that BMW concentrates on high-end segments on a global scale and consistently defines premium brand identification renders success. Trendsetting and attractive product range deliberately targets on affluent customers and demonstrates the success of the automaker’s global marketing strategy.
Responding sensitively to the unique values and purchasing behavior enabled BMW to transcend intended performance. So to specifically present, here comes 6 brilliant examples of BMW commercials released in recent years and their underlying marketing tactics behind them.
• Artistic Approaches and Creativity is a Must
As the leading brand of Mini-Cooper, creativity and true representation of the brand identity is essential for BMW. Plus, the style accents of the vehicles and the global marketing identity are truly based on art and creativity. That’s why almost in every ad campaign, we see a feature that imposes something different and artsy which connects strongly with high-end technology and an unusual concept of the artistic elements.
In the campaign, BMW Australia, collaborates with creative agency partner Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, and has launched Illuminated Landscapes, promoting the new X5. Illuminated Landscapes features artworks lit only by the X5’s Laserlights. Beaming an impressive 500 metres, the Laserlights are just one of the X5’s innovative technical features.
The jaw-dropping images and the video of the campaign show and explain that BMW is also good and powerful in art when collaborating with Clemenger BBDO and photographing the Australian landscapes.
• Ambassador and Proud Presenter of the Latest Technologies
Considered as one of the biggest tech-savvy brands among their industry, BMW always follows latest technologies as well as implementing them on the releasing car models. Combining virtual and augmented reality, BMW Art Car #18 has features from VR and AR, and is designed by Chinese artist, Cao Fei.
BMW M6 GT3 race car appeared on stage, in a matte black color. The augmented -and virtual- reality technology transforms the vehicle, with a sculpture moving and dancing while the car gets in shape.
• Eager to Follow Content Marketing as a Flagship Marketing Strategy
BMW is eager to widen their potential audience by creating content that engages consumers beyond cars and “gets to the point”.
The brand sees a mobile-first, content-oriented approach which will help attract a broader audience and claims the recent relaunch of its website has already increased mobile visitors by 27%.
Speaking at Mobile World Congress 2019, the German carmaker’s Global Head of Digital Marketing, Jorg Poggenpohl, explained how BMW is extending its content beyond automotive to “enlarge the upper sales funnel”, meaning it is now also creating content around lifestyle, design, innovation and fashion.
Based on data-driven insights we wanted to create relevant and snackable content in helpful and entertaining ways. That way the business hopes to reach both existing customers and those that might be considering BMW but don’t yet own one. We were thinking customer, consumer-first, which means for us mobile-first with speed. We did it by combining two technologies, accelerated mobile pages and progressive web apps, to bring both ends together on one site.
It also shows when creative and engineering prioritizes speed from the beginning of the project, before the first line of code is written. – Jorg Poggenpohl
• Having Guest Stars in Their Campaigns
One of the most traditional and best-known marketing tip for brands to use celebrities as the brand ambassadors. In the automotive industry, this is frequently working for the new features and models of the products to especially identify with the new products as well. This also doubles the connection to customers.
In the camoaign of M2 Coupe, BMW released its digital-first campaign and enlisted model Gigi Hadid in an interactive 360 degree film. The film, which debuted on YouTube and Facebook, was directed by Marc Forster, who directed films such as “James Bond – Quantum of Solace” and “World War Z”.
Hadid was immediately impressed:
BMW is such an iconic brand. The fact that I get to be the face of this campaign is definitely a career highlight for me. The M2 is such a cool, fun car
I had a blast working on this project.
• Showing off The Competitive Side
As known being famous for its contraversial print ads, the automotive industry is sometimes being quite aggressive with the attributions and we know that this is a 100% working digital marketing strategy.
BMW’s new ad is routing Tesla’s new model for its timeless waiting lists. The question for the users is, “Will you wait, or drive?”
Famous for its sarcastic marketing approaches, BMW is caving in Tesla’s Model 3 with its competitor-model 330e plug-in hybrid because of the release problems. The teasing is just because BMW already in-use with its product, while Tesla is not, so the fastest aired-one wins this competition.
“You’ll do your taxes twice, maybe more… You’ll ring in the New Year twice, maybe more…” Here, the ad is trying to explain the postponed dates for the Tesla 3 model.
“You can pay deposit and wait, you can put your name on a list, and wait… or you can drive…” We see the Tesla Superchargers in the ad but without the cars on, thus strengthening the BMW’s brand-image.
• Deep Knowledge About Who To Reach and How To
Heading into 2020, millennial works and marketing techniques are essential to apply and contribute even among the authentic brands, and BMW is known that they effectively use social media and 3rd wave communication platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat when in popularity.
BMW designed a car inside Snapchat’s AR lenses, that almost looks like it’s real and ‘driveable’. The automobile brand is the first to create a 3D augmented reality kind of a product partnering with Snapchat to roll out the new advert campaign to launch the BMW X2. Last week, the LA based company, Snap Inc, began seeing ads from BMW that link to the AR version of the new car, which lets customers foresee how products look in the real world before buying them.
As part of the project, Snapchat users can customize the augmented-reality version of the car. They can make changes to the colour and move it around to view it from different perspectives. BMW is also running mobile-like video ads within Snapchat, for users to swipe up on them to play with the Lens.
BMW is the first brand to launch Snapchat’s AR ads, yet we’re expecting others to make their moves in soon.
BMW positions itself as a pioneer in using the newest technology and following the biggest updates in the digital marketing industry. If you like to see more BMW’s marketing campaigns, have a look and get inspired.
