We featured a series of AI powered translation errors in the context of Chinese New Year (CNY) by seizing on the fact that when Bao Ma (BMW’s Chinese name, “Precious Horse”) is inputted, the English translation will become “BMW” instead of “Precious Horse”. The quirky but joyful translation of Chinese New Year blessings into hilarious sentences and visuals delivered sheer joy beyond language for CNY celebration.

The visual style of the viral video was inspired by machine generated AI content, transforming and collaging the literal translations into more joyful memes that mixes in car-relevant elements.


Chinese New Year is the most important time for brands to connect with consumers and demonstrate cultural resonance. However, with every brand investing heavily, it’s critical to be ownable and stand out. For the past two years, BMW has relied on a winning formula: playing with its name in an irreverent way to bring Joy to consumers. In 2021, we hilariously turned BMW into Ba Ma Wo, which means ‘dad, mom and me’. In 2022, we created an interplay between a horse (BMW’s Chinese name “Precious Horse”) with a tiger (2022, the year of Tiger) that got everyone singing and dancing. This year the brief was to continue the “BMW way of celebrating CNY” – timely, joyful and something only BMW can do. So we turned to the topic that everyone was talking about – AI. And we showed how an AI-fail allowed BMW to accidentally hijack Chinese New Year.

The “Translating Joy” campaign was even more influential than 2022’s hugely successful BMW CNY campaign “Nothing but Sheer Joy” and once again made BMW the most iconic and culturally resonant brand during CNY. 


• Campaign impressions: 976M


• Campaign video views: 263M, +2% vs. 2022;


• Campaign engagement: 10.4M, which is 2.6 times than 2022 CNY campaign engagement;


• More than 80 dealers participated the campaign and created +37.9%; greater impact on their fans

• NSR reached a new high of 98.2%, which is almost 10% higher than 2022.



Many fans used translation apps to validate the AI error during CNY. The phenomena grew to be so big that the tech giants who own the translation apps finally corrected the error.


The younger generation of Chinese consumers connect more strongly with their cultural identity. Thus, a brand that shows a strong connection and deep understanding of local culture, especially during CNY, will win their hearts. This group of consumers is especially important to BMW, with 40% of BMW buyers in 2022 born after 1990.

Chinese people’s love of using good words to express wishes can be traced back to ancient poetries, in which Bao Ma (BMW’s Chinese name “Precious Horse”) was frequently used already. 200+ ancient poems contain Bao Ma, the most famous one is “Precious Horses and Lavish Carriages Go by Leaving a Scented Trail” (“宝马雕车香满路”) written in 202. It is a tradition carried on until now, especially during CNY. We established a connection between BMW and Chinese culture by putting various wishes with Bao Ma into AI-powered translation apps. Although the meanings are twisted, the joy is magnified. Poetry created in 202 turns into “I wish you a BMW carving car”, while “I wish my beloved ones come home immediately” (“祝心爱的宝马上到家”) becomes “I wish my beloved BMW home”.