Results and Effectiveness

The campaign created extensive noise and engagement online: - 18 million viral video views in total - 2.4 million forwards and mentions on social networks - 4.3 million online searches It successfully activated the consumers: 60,419 people registered for a nation-wide BMW 1 Series driving event to experience the car. This was three times our given target and every registration was a verified sales lead for the client.

Creative Execution

In China people are very superstitious. Anything mysterious triggers immediate strong attention and passionate discussions. We wanted to capture people's undivided attention with something mysterious to pave the ground for a grand introduction of the 1 Series. It came in handy that there had never been a crop circle in the country and most Chinese still believed them to be of extraterrestrial origin. So we staged the discovery of a huge perfectly symmetrical symbol in the desert to create an unbranded real-life drama on social networks. We disrupted everyday life and seeded footage of this to video platforms, blogs and microblogs. Shortly after, we launched a staged news report, initiating passionate speculations about its origin. The real press picked up on it and the online chatter even leaped across the country's borders. The attention was at a peak when we released the solution video with our product.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

The task was to create awareness for the compact BMW 1 Series family and to incite the target audience to register for a driving event to get to know the cars. The target were young affluent Chinese. It's a new generation with a more individual active and social lifestyle than those before them. They know BMW well and accept the brand as a symbol of higher status. However, small cars make for little interest in China. People still want to gain 'face" by driving large cars and only this young generation slowly shifts to a more taste-driven purchase behavior. Knowing that the target audience would be interested in the car if they got to know it, we needed to break through to them and display how the 1 Series suits their new lifestyle.