The film idea is about the “unofficial car badging” phenomena. The BMW M badge has a distinctive logo, color pattern and three stripe motif. People love to put this badge on their own car because it symbolizes performance, power, and the Ultimate Driving Machine. The film is a compilation of real photos and videos of cars with unofficial BMW M badges. The twist is that these images are coupled with an emotional love song. The key message is that no matter how you show love to BMW M, the brand loves you back.

BMW in China has a massive community who love to share and engage with the brand. Wechat is filled with BMW community groups and BMW’s Tiktok channel has 10x more followers than Mercedes’. BMW is the only luxury car brand in China with this fan base, which has helped it stay #1. Part of why BMW has so many fans is because of its inclusive community approach. Whether you are an owner or not, if you love BMW, you are invited to come play. This felt natural for BMW, a category leader whose brand promise is “Joy”.

2022 was the 50th anniversary of BMW M, BMW’s iconic high-performance subdivision. The global campaign was “We Are M”, an exclusive celebration for owners and insiders. But given BMW China’s inclusive, community-focused approach, we wanted to open the celebration to include all BMW M lovers.

The campaign was only released by the community. The video did not appear on any official channels nor was there any media spend. Nonetheless, it achieved:

- 33.8M impressions

- 6.5M video views

- 40k engagement

More importantly, we got a very passionate response from the community. Fans resonated with the video’s inclusive message saying, “Everyone is a BMW M fan in their hearts” and “Happy to get love from my dream car”. Some commented on BMW’s bravery, saying "This boldness is what makes BMW M so legendary". Finally, many showed their undying love, saying "Proud to be an M owner", "Another emotional experience with BMW M" and "M power forever!". With the website, fans’ imaginations went wild. Some printed the M designs and stuck to their real cars! And fans even went beyond the campaign, customizing BMW M cars in video games and using AI to re-imagine M cars.

Walk down the streets and there’s a big chance that you will see a car with an unofficial BMW M badge. And it’s not limited to cars – they are also on motorbikes, bicycles, and skateboards. Interestingly, this phenomenon is specific to BMW M. You won’t see unofficial Mercedes Benz, Audi or even BMW logos, but BMW M is everywhere. Many brands would see “unofficial badging” as a threat. But BMW embraces anyone who loves BMW and the thrill of driving.

Car racing culture is just developing in China so Chinese consumers didn’t witness the golden age when the premium car brands won titles on the race track. Even so, they love to use signature designs like the BMW M tricolors to decorate their vehicles. It is driven by their desire to be closer to the performance dream cars that they have seen on the street and in ads.