Cannes Lions

BMW

GSD&M , Austin / BMW / 2011

Overview

Entries

Credits

Overview

Description

For years BMW’s advertising had focused on one thing: The Ultimate Driving Machine.

The people in the ads felt like wallpaper, and the brand was perceived as cold. Our challenge was to humanize BMW and we knew one way to do that was to introduce the world to some of its drivers. So we created Unscripted, a documentary film series celebrating the infectious joy of loving something just because it’s what feels right. We set out to capture emotionally engaging stories from all over the world. And while we didn’t create the voice for BMW, it sure was fun finding it.

Execution

The films were released one at a time over a three-month period through various online BMW media outlets (BMW YouTube channel and BMW.tv). The film series now has a permanent home at bmwusa.com and BMW’s U.S. Facebook page. (Facebook.com/bmwusa)

Outcome

The campaign has been met with near unanimous approval from all over the world. Each film quickly had a viral boost as BMW’s core fans shared them on their own blogs and social networks. At the time of this writing, the most watched of the five films has 360,000+ views on YouTube, without any paid media support. BMW sees the potential of the series and has already produced an additional film using one of their top engineers. This platform gives them a chance to continue to connect with consumers in a more emotionally engaging way than they ever had before.

Similar Campaigns

12 items

Shackleton's Return

INNOCEAN WORLDWIDE, Seoul

Shackleton's Return

2018, HYUNDAI

(opens in a new tab)