Before this year, BMW dealers in Canada would design their own marketing collateral to celebrate Chinese New Year. This often created inconsistency in quality and brand imagery from dealer to dealer. To welcome its Chinese customers into the Year of the Dragon, BMW wanted to create uniform, branded collateral for all of its retailers.

Calligraphy is a common feature of Chinese New Year celebrations. With that insight, BMW created calligraphy that engaged Chinese consumers in 3 different ways. The letters read BMW; they were shaped to create a visual representation of a dragon, with the 2 first initials connoting the head and body, and the third initial, 'W', the tail. Finally, the calligraphy also read 'Dragon', in Chinese.The visual elements created a strong association between the brand and the powerful creature. A tag line, which in English translated to “Wishing you a brighter future in the Year of the Dragon”, helped tie everything together.

The calligraphy was printed on 6,600 red 'Lai-see' envelopes, which the Chinese use to hand out 'lucky' money. BMW also created a postcard of the calligraphy and posted it on the retailer marketing portal, where dealers could print the postcard off based on their customer needs.

By having 3 different ways in which the typography could speak to customers, BMW reached both recent immigrants and the second-generation Chinese Canadians, both key demographics for the brand. Its retailer network reported a high satisfaction rate with the Chinese New Year collateral, and printed off thousands of postcards for locally-driven direct marketing efforts.