Brand Engagement
This campaign for the new BMW Z4 has been in my thoughts of late, so I thought I’d just mention is here. Firstly I’d like to say well done BMW.
Traditional advertising and marketing has just been about talking at potential customers for too long. The BMW Z4 3-D plugin is a good example of raising the level of engagement people are able to have with a brand.
However, if BMW are only to use pure traditional advertising and a full-on download/install computer plugin it would not be taking notice of the full spectrum of potential users. To maximise conversation possibilities careful consideration to levels of participation is crucial.
I’ll use this BMW campaign to illustrate:
- Indifferent: for these folks this campaign is simply billboards, magazine ads, TVCs just like always (I am fond of the effectiveness of traditional media; long may it live on)
- Viewers: look at things online, good deeper if there’s the need (eg. start with ad, move to making of, move to app demo)
- Joiners: you can join the fb group and share with friends (and interact with BMW as a ‘real person’ (questions answered etc)
- Participants: download the app, have a play
- Creators: play with app save, create patterns and upload their user-generated content.
The direct correlation between each of these mediums of engagement with their direct car sales figures can tough to measure. But the positive results of brand perception in consumer minds is maximised by their ability to interact with BMW to their personal level of comfort and/or interest. Marketing and brand building needs to look long term… those ‘younger tech-savvi’ users who play with the app today may not have the money for a new car now… but it is building brand relevance foundation in them as a future market.
In the meantime the traditional media is still doing its thing (however even the efficacy of a billboard difficult to quantify, but that’s the way it’s been done for years and companies do have faith in it).
Deff keen for your thoughts and discussion. Add your thought to the comment section.
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I’ve been monitoring the development of the Z4 campaign since I watched the making of the ad via Wallpaper* (www.wallpaper.com/cars/behind-the-scenes-bmw-z4-ad-shoot/2937) in the last quarter of 2008. The campaign strikes me as being noteworthy, but not necessarily for the customer engagement options highlighted above.
BMW are industry leaders at product campaigns and again seem to have created the right campaign mix (including customer engagement strategies) – if not the correct weightings across the mix. However, from the outcome and form of the ad, it strikes me that this campaign was probably not created with conversational possibilities forefront of mind. Rather it probably conceived as a creative idea in response to an internally perceived shortcoming.
This ad potentially marks a lack of confidence at BMW regarding the strength of their current advertising format. BMW ads since the introducing of the current Design Director have overwhelming been shot in focus, from the front/ side quarter with gleaming paint work (post production) against a soft or out-of-focus background, typically a road (take a quick tour through their website http://www.bmw.co.uk). In short, they have been about the ‘experience’ of driving. The Z4, by comparison, is shot from a high angle against the white canvas – the creation of a piece of art. It is striking that the car in their range that is most about pure driving pleasure communicates the ‘joy of driving’ conceptually.
The fact that the campaign ticks all the right the boxes in terms of consumer communication/engagement possibilities, says more about BMW’s marketing expertise rather than the campaign itself.
The question remains whether BMW feels that their existing advertising format is tired and this campaign marks a new direction – or whether they perceived a special approach was required to target buyers of the Z4. Either way one can be sure that lessons learnt from this campaign will be incorporated in future campaigns across the range – and we’ll do well to monitor how things progress.