Category: Best non-fiction program, series or film where a client has successfully created a reality, documentary or light entertainment show around a product(s) or brand(s)
Advertiser: BMW
Product/Service: BMW 6 SERIES
Agency: ENSEMBLE
Agency: UNIVERSAL McCANN
Agency: PLUM TV
President/Chief Executive Officer: Scott Donaton (Ensemble)
Vice President Group Media Director: Justin Wroe (Universal McCann)
Department Manager Marketing Communications And Consumer Events: Trudy Hardy (BMW)
Founder: Tom Scott (Plum TV)
Executive Producer: Andy Spade (Plum TV)
Executive Producer: Christopher Penney (Plum TV)
Media placement: Tune In Teaser - TV - June
Media placement: Digital - Facebook, Twitter, Plum - June
Media placement: Print - Plum Magazine - June
Campaign Description
Branded Entertainment is rapidly growing in the US and it is emerging as a leading alternative media strategy. The difficulty of reaching increasingly elusive target consumers, who have more ways to ignore and filter out brand messages than ever before, and the transformation of communications due to these developments, have made it more important than ever for brands in the US to invest in strategies to engage target consumers in captive locations for extended periods of time, through the power of emotional connections – entertainment.
In 2010, advertisers spent over $25bn on branded entertainment and that number is expected to reach over $38bn by 2014, a 9.2% compound annual growth rate. However, despite its rapid growth, in many ways, it is still in its infancy as it is often misunderstood and misused by the very advertisers footing the bill. However, the history of advertising in the US has shown us that new platforms are almost always initially misunderstood and misused. So, if the increasing expenditure on branded entertainment tells us anything, it’s that we can expect to see not just an increased amount of branded content, but an increased quality of it as well.
Effectiveness
The challenge was to generate awareness for the relaunch of the BMW 6-Series Convertible and Coupe in 2011. For a luxury brand like BMW, they need to sell more than a vehicle; they need to sell an emotion, a heritage, a lifestyle – and content is one of the best ways to do that. The potential 6-Series driver is very affluent, well educated, and extremely dedicated. For them, life is not about being the passenger; it’s always about being the driver. However, the driver they are at work is different from the driver they are at home. Who they are during the week is different from who they are on the weekends. Just as Clark Kent trades in his suit, tie and glasses for tights and a red cape to pursue adventures, we all have secret identities—and ways to express them.
Always connected and in the know, it was important to deliver experiences that surprised and delighted in order to capture their attention. We used content to deliver that surprise and delight – to tell the sometimes surprising and at all times inspiring stories of a very accomplished and unique group of self-made men and women who take life on with a full head of steam. For these drivers, we created Alter/Egos – a short, documentary style editorial film series answering the question of why people drive a weekend car – to express another side of oneself.
Working with an Emmy Award winning studio, we produced 5 5-minute long, unique and compelling editorial films that take a close up look at the surprising and inspiring opposite sides of personalities of high profile subjects including GQ Style Guy/Stand-Up Comedian Glenn O’Brien, Fashion Designer/Humanitarian Donna Karan, Jewellery Designer/Cowboy David Yurman, Actor/Musician Kevin Bacon, and Director/Pilot Doug Liman.
Implementation
We used a combination of paid media, social media, and live events to draw the audience to the content. Tune-in teasers and tickets aired on a well-known network for each episode, ads across a well-known website and mobile site drew people in, as well as promotional communications through Facebook and Twitter. We also debuted the first episode at the Nantucket Film Festival and showed other episodes at 2 special parties in the Hamptons.
Outcome
The results were as inspiring as the series itself. Through all distribution outlets, the videos saw over 1m views from a very narrow target audience, and across all platforms, they took in almost 73m impressions. These efforts helped lift the favourable perception of the car among its audience by 17%. As Business Insider noted, “BMW [drove] to [the] upscale niche market with [their] branded video series”. Autoweek got our message loud and clear and echoed our strategy by saying, “the films tell the stories of the celebrities and the dichotomy of their public and private personas, showing that there is more to them than meets the eye. This message also applies to the 6-series, in that below its stylish exterior is an abundance of power and advanced technology”. The target audience found the content inspiring and the car spectacular. 2 of the people we profiled, Donna Karen and David Yurman, both placed pre-orders for the car that day. The period between the launch of the first episode and the last episode saw the biggest sales spike of the 6 series since its launch in 2003 with over 1,000 units sold.