Why is this work relevant for Media?

By creating a custom mini TV program in partnership with TBS Television, we were able to tell a richer story about the BMW brand that showcased its progressive attitude. The mini TV program was placed in between programs that we knew our target audience watched, ensuring effective reach and frequency. In addition, the content from the show was placed on BMW sites and SNS handles, enabling BMW to reach a broader audience beyond the TV viewers. As a result, BMW saw its website traffic increase after the program aired each week and saw significant improvement in brand tracker results.

Background

Establish BMW as the leading premium auto brand within the Japanese market and drive brand consideration and ultimately purchase of BMW premium cars.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

In Japan, BMW is a well-known premium auto brand, but wasn’t as established as a brand known for its innovation and progressiveness. While our target audience – Considerate Pioneers – were aware that BMW makes great cars, that alone wasn’t going to satisfy them in the hyper competitive Japanese auto market. Instead, what they were looking for from brands were more than just good products, but alignment with their progressive attitude and lifestyle. To entice Considerate Pioneers to consider BMW for their next car purchase, we needed to tell the brand story that went beyond BMW’s products and engineering.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

To capture the attention and interest of our target audience, we partnered with TV broadcaster TBS to create a custom mini-TV show that showcased BMW’s progressive attitude. Titled ‘GoNext’ the custom content series featured Japanese innovators who were making an impact in their respective industries – be it, music, cuisine, entrepreneurship or eSports gaming. By aligning the brand to those individuals who shared the same spirit as BMW, BMW was able to establish itself as more than just a car brand, but a brand that is supporting the progressive attitude and lifestyle.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

We worked closely with TBS to handpick the list of individuals who aligned with BMW’s pioneering spirit. Most were people who weren’t well known outside of their respective industries, but revolutionizing their categories by introducing new techniques and challenging the status quo. By telling their stories through the 3-minute mini program that sat between high profile TBS programming, BMW was able to capture audience attention and tell a richer story around its brand value. In addition to BMW curating this custom series and airing commercials after the TV show, branded content was created with these pioneering individuals featuring different BMW products that fit with the individual’s persona. Branded content was placed on BMW’s own website as well as on social media. As a result, strong linkage was created between BMW and the individuals who were featured in GoNext, and some have continued on to become BMW ambassadors.

List the results (30% of vote)

The mini program has been successful at reaching BMW target audience – especially those who are younger (20s and 30s). Traffic to BMW website saw a significant increase (+13%) during and immediately after the TV program viewership driving incremental visits to BMW websites. In addition, branded content on BMW websites currently account for 3% of all websites traffic to BMW with 76% of those visitors being new to BMW. Branded social media posts featuring some of the GoNext individuals have also generated significant likes and re-tweets creating buzz around GoNext and BMW. More importantly, according to the Brand Tracker, people who were exposed to the GoNext content and BMW ad had +24% higher approval rate of key brand attributes such as joy, independent and pioneering. In addition, those people who were exposed were +29% more likely to ‘really like’ BMW and +31% more likely to ‘want to own’ BMW cars.