BMW - The Hire

Marketing cars can seem unforgiving. Shots of the car at the most flattering angles are de riguer. The location has to be with a super modern urban environment or a wonderful curving road, set in beautiful scenery. Music can be used to signal the desired audience - I think every track from the debut album by Moby were used in car ads. So just as most cars now look alike, most car ads do too.

Perhaps the most famous example of trying something different is the BMW series of short films the Hire. Eschewing product placement a la Bond - more Ford Fiesta than Aston Martin - BMW (with ad agency Fallon) went Hollywood and made their own films.

The films blended high production values with top tier talent;  Madonna, James Brown, Gary Oldman, Mickey Rourke, Forest Whitaker and more starred. The Directors were equally prestigious including John Frankenheimer, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-wai, Guy Ritchie, John Woo and Tony Scott

In each 10 minute film The Driver, played by Clive Owen, is tasked with a mission that puts him, and the BMW he drives, at risk. Along the way we get the mandatory flattering car porn shots plus the scenery - wrapped in a plausible plot. And - guess what -  in each case the Driver avoids disaster and wins through, with the car the Hero.

Launched in 2001, the project predated YouTube and was distributed first via a webcast on the BMW site, then on DVDs - first to the BMW customer database, then promoted with ads. Even so, they managed 65 million views.

The campaign has had significant acclaim. The New York Times film critic (Elvis Mitchell) called the series “a marriage of commerce and creativity, straddling the ever-dwindling line between arts and merchandising.” It did well in advertising awards; two Grand Clio Awards and a Grand Prix Cyber Lion at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes, along with Best of Show at the One Show. It also won the first-ever Titanium Lion, the highest honor at the Cannes International Advertising Festival. The award recognized a campaign that caused ‘‘the industry to stop in its tracks and reconsider the way forward.’’

And BMW sales rose 17.2 percent between 2001 and 2002, helping the automaker to outsell Mercedes and placing it second only to Lexus in the luxury-car market

It's not the only art project that BMW supports - since the mid 70s great artists have been invited to customise a BMW car - with David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons amongst those taking part.

More background at Wikipedia, this excellent case study and you can watch the films on YouTube

Lessons for marketers? Brands can and do make compelling content. Done right, they earn an audience.