Louis Eksteen/FHM South Africa/Publisher Communication goal was to position the BMW C1 as a desirable, fashionable means of transportation amongst the up-market trendy youth set in South Africa. To market the fact that you don’t need to wear a helmet whilst riding a BMW C1. Three editorial style hair fashion spreads, showing radical hairstyles that would obviously not allow for a motorcycle helmet to be worn, followed by a similar advertising spread showing the BMW C1 with the caption “Mercifully, no helmet required” was placed in FHM’s “Collections” which is targeted at a young trendy market. The media team were instrumental in all aspects of getting the Editor and Publisher of FHM to agree to use editorial space to lead into our advertisement. The media team came up with several solutions to get the client a deal that was feasible and in the end it worked out extremely well. The “editorial” pages have subsequently been turned into branded posters and advertisements. BMW C1 has the potential to be very uncool! It is a vehicle that must be positioned correctly from day one or it faces the prospect of failure. The solution we came up with immediately places the bike in “Cult” territory, ensuring that the brand starts off with the right attitude.Advertising clutter in magazines is extremely difficult to break through. Readers simply tune out ads. The BMW C1 entry looks like a fashion shoot or hair style shoot to begin with and then rewards the reader with a rewarding message. A large involvement with the publisher and editor of FHM in South Africa ensured that this idea saw light of day. The publication agreed to run the first 3 spreads as editorial, followed by an advertising spread. It should win because it is a really unique way to engineer an ad-cynical market into interacting with an advertisement.

The media team were instrumental in all aspects of getting the Editor and Publisher of FHM to agree to use editorial space to lead into our advertisement. The media team came up with several solutions to get the client a deal that was feasible and in the end it worked out extremely well. The “editorial” pages have subsequently been turned into branded posters and advertisements.