Part branding, part CRM, part event marketing, the BMW 1 Series Launch shows how great digital experience can combine with great offline experiences to accomplish business goals.
BMW asked us to help them launch the 1 Series in Canada. The 1 Series is a sporty hatchback targeted at young urban males in their twenties and early thirties. While BMW wanted to create energy and excitement around introducing this car, they ultimately wanted to have people walk into dealerships and drive this car.
The Program
Working with BMW’s in house events team we arranged 4 track days in 4 cities (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal). Next we needed to fill the available test drive seats with qualified drivers.
How it played out
We began by creating a microsite and display ads that said “Not Everyone Gets 1T”. The ads were unbranded and lead to the microsite which asked users to fill out demographic information. Without knowing specifically what they were applying for, thousands of people filled out the form hoping to see if they were picked.
Simultaneously, street teams in the 4 cities went into bars and restaurants where our desired drivers would likely be and handed out “Not Everyone Gets 1T” cards that had a code and the microsite URL. Since the street teams were able to speak to potential drivers they could determine whether they were in our target.
All of this was funneled into BMW’s CRM database. Drivers were then selected from the database who matched our criteria to be invited to one of the track days. But just because you were selected didn’t mean you got a seat.
Selected drivers then needed to get their friends to “vote” them into one of the coveted test drive seats. Voting was done through a Facebook App that drivers would put on their page. We also auctioned off 4 seats (one in each city) on eBay, with proceeds going to charity.
With the introduction of social features such as Facebook’s “Like” button we were able to attach these to devices allowing BMW the opportunity to communicate with their consumers at a future point in time.
The Results
The initial goal was to generate 5000 qualified leads into the database. That goal was achieved within the first half of the campaign. The response was so overwhelming, BMW added additional event slots in all the cities to accommodate the demand.
By the end of the campaign the CRM Database had grown by over 25,000 drivers. The Facebook app was installed by 2400 users and had a 10x vote multiplier and the reach would have been much larger (there were no Facebook analytic tools available at the time). This campaign shows how you can use digital experiences to drive and enhance real world interactions.
