BMW asked us to develop a campaign to launch their Certified Pre-Owned program for 2019 and to create a new name and tagline. They had a limited budget but needed a campaign that would stand the test of time and run during the entire year.

We first went through BMW ads from the last five years from around the world, because that’s the oldest BMW Certified vehicle you can buy. We took previously aired spots—created and produced by other agencies—and “refurbished” each one of them, making the ads feel like new again. For each vehicle model, we used the original commercial that launched that very same model. Simply by adding a new voice-over and tagline, we were able to completely change the meaning of the original ad, making it feel “refurbished” and new again.

The “like new again” strategy led directly to our creative idea: Let’s rerun old BMW ads like new again.

Instead of shooting new spots for old cars, we “refurbished” old ads and re-aired them. Old commercials were “updated” with a new voice-over that completely changed the original ads, making them feel new again—just like the cars we were promoting.

The oldest BMW Certified vehicle that anyone can buy is five years old. So we went back through five years’ worth of BMW ads to find ads matching the corresponding models we were selling.

We recycled and “refurbished” everything from old BMW radio ads and old billboards, and we even retweeted old social posts.

The simple idea of making something old like new again allowed us to dramatically reduce production costs, and we created an entirely “new” integrated campaign for less than the cost of a standard TV commercial.

After conducting independent stakeholder interviews across the BMW organization, a custom quantitative study and an analysis of the competition, culture, consumer and client, we arrived at our insights.

We understood that our target audience deeply valued quality when it came to their purchases, with 86% citing “overall quality” as one of their top three criteria when buying a vehicle. This was also evident in their overall buying habits: In an age when people are forgoing plastic straws, fast food and fast fashion, disposable is out, and quality—what will last into the future—is in.

We also knew that typical used-car commercials barely assured buyers of quality. If anything, they had a problematic tendency to focus on the past and to talk about the vehicles’ previous owners, which made people more concerned with the idea that used cars came with loaded histories and compromised quality.

We realized there was an opportunity for BMW to leverage its superior certification process to assure people that BMW Certified vehicles aren’t your typical used cars—and they perform just as impeccably as the day they were first produced. Our strategy? Show how BMW Certified vehicles actually run like new, again.

We needed an innovative way to stretch our budget while showing viewers that a pre-owned BMW Certified drives like a new BMW. So we decided to re-air old BMW spots, “refurbished” to run like new again—just like the cars we are promoting.

We went through BMW ads from the last five years from around the world—because that’s the oldest BMW Certified vehicle you can buy. Simply by adding a new voice-over and tagline, we completely changed the meaning of the original ad, making it feel new again.

And it worked. Video completion rates on Hulu hit 99%, compared to BMW’s video benchmark of 70%–75%. These were the same commercials viewers watched before, now getting higher views in their “refurbished” state.

The campaign was hugely successful, with a 52% increase in year-over-year leads in January 2019 (when the campaign launched). This increase came despite only a modest 7% increase in year-over-year paid-media impressions.

Awareness metrics showed viewers were engaging with the BMW Certified messaging more than usual. Video-completion rates across Hulu hit 99% compared to BMW’s video benchmark of 70%–75%. For the EXACT SAME ADS VIEWERS HAD SEEN YEARS EARLIER!

In search data, BMW Certified interest grew rapidly, with Share-of-Voice for branded keywords increasing to 80% (a 15-percentage-point lift year over year).

The campaign was also covered by publications such as Fast Company and Contagious.

Best of all, we managed to save close to US$1 million (60% of the total original budget) and reinvest it into future advertising. In a category dominated by huge budgets from the likes of Mercedes Benz, this helped BMW truly punch above their weight.