Platform strategy & Design , Video, viral campaign, social campaign Photoshoot, website design

Role : Executive Creative Director APAC

Duration: 5.5 years

Accolades

2014 ROI China Silver
2013 ROI China Gold
2013 ADQuan Top10 Interactive BMW
2013 New York Festivals Gold & Finalist
2013 Long (Gunn) Silver
2012 DMA Digital Media Gold & Bronze
2012 ROI China Gold
2012 Great Wall China Grand Prix & Gold
2012 DamnDigital Creative Agency of the Year

As an expression of both, freedom and wealth, cars are very dear and important to the Chinese and BMW is one of the most prestigious brands.

Having worked on BMW in Germany prior to moving to Asia, I spent 5.5 years positioning the brand in China and catering to the very unique preferences of the audience.

Car advertising in the Middle Kingdom is decidedly entertainment-driven and likes to push boundaries to say the least. BMW took a leading role in this.

Below a selection of projects during my tenure as digital creative lead.

To launch the M version of the X5 and X6, BMW wanted to showcase the sense of adventure these SAV models embody when being unleashed.

China's car advertising is driven by entertainment, so we set the cars into the heart of a theatrical action film far beyond the ordinary.
Creating a 4 minute film, complete with teaser and trailer clips and cinema placement, the cars became the heroes of a high-paced action mission.

The story would cross into the real world during a large scale launch event in Shanghai. The cars were publicly launched in the setting of the film - with the cargo plane arriving at Shanghai and the X5M and X6M demonstrating their place in the BMW M range.

A day later, both models were sold out for the entire year.

How to advertise the smallest BMW in a market with a preference for large cars? How to highlight its agile rear wheel drive? By using the car to drift precise shapes into the sand. And because the audience is receptive to all things supernatural, let this be a crop circle.

It started as a textbook viral campaign - pictures and videos of a mysterious 3km wide crop circle in the Gobi desert appeared. We knew they would get attention, but we were not prepared for how much.

20 million people viewed them and engaged heated discussions that went far beyond China to every continent. People analysed the pictures and troves drove out to the location that was identified by the shapes of the mountains. Shortly after we released the reveal video showing it was a stunt by a young group of drivers in their 1 Series BMWs.

Not only was the entire target audience talking about the cars, all 3 of them were sold out for 12 months just days after.

When a car’s tagline includes the word rebel, it demands a different and daring launch.

Instead of giving it the usual press event, we decided to put the drivers first - the fans - and let them decide live how to launch it.

Sitting in front of their laptops and iPads at home, they followed us into a warehouse to watch a fiery car unveiling and the car’s explosive energy unfold on a race track. We then opened the lines for voting (xxxxxxx)