BMW’s First-Ever Online Car Launch for the All-New BMW 2 Series Coupe

We all know that setting up a press conference can be a big task, and taking it online can be even trickier.

With the word “rebel” in its Positioning, the car called for a bold and different launch. Instead of the usual press event, we wanted to focus on the fans – the actual drivers.  And let them decide live how to launch it.

TEASER PHASE

Through ads and social media, we created a buzz. We directed everyone to our teaser campaign site and asked them to sign up for the live event.

LAUNCH PHASE

People tuned in from their phones or computers at home, joining us in a warehouse setting. There, they watched an exciting reveal of the car, showing off its powerful drive on a race track. After that, we let them vote on what should happen next. They had 3 choices: a chicken race, a firewall drag race, or a burning barrel slalom.

THE RESULTS

In just one day, over 2 million people joined the event. Searches for the car on Baidu went up 9 times, and our website traffic soared 17 times. We got mentioned in 889 PR articles, and many car magazines discussed our launch. The feedback was amazing on popular Chinese platforms like Weibo and WeChat. Just 2 weeks later, 2,147 people signed up to try the car. And if you look at the usual costs and turnout of traditional events, our online approach was 10,000 times more value for money.