This campaign has been running for a while now using the ‘aircraft’ analogy. My biggest problem with it is that Saab actually did this far better back in the 1970s and 80s in the UK. An old mate of mine, Nigel Fordham, was the agency Account Director on it, and he actually succeeded in converting me to driving Saab Turbo’s for a while. At least until GM bought them and totally messed them up and destroyed what was a great car brand. Overall Saab had more justification for the aircraft theme, as Saab was originally an aviation company. Hope Saab survive – the brand deserves to.
Anyway, overall I like the Beemer campaign. You have to admire brands who stick to their knitting, and BMW stick to their brand with their Ultimate Driving Machine message – devised by London based WCRS in the 1970’s and an example of great positioning if ever there was one. I ask myself ‘is it selling cars’ though – well I ask myself is anything selling cars just now? I suspect they are doing better though than most (certainly better than most US) car manufacturers. I give it a 6/10
Julian Stubbs
Head of Global Branding
Spoken like a true Porsche man! It is interesting to see that agencies and advertisers still hold tight the notion that ‘the media is the message’ – that if the car ad is in an airport, it must be “flying” themed. Sometimes it comes off a bit shoe-horned, huh?
If you are looking for a 10/10 in this space, and speaking of BMW:
If you are looking for a 10/10 in this space, and speaking of BMW:
http://flourphoto.com/misc/fail-owned-audi-chess-fail.jpg
I won’t mention to any of the old Ammirati Puris folks that they aren’t being given credit for the “Ultimate Driving Machine’ concept as it would surely break their hearts since, as the legend goes, Ralph and Martin wrote the line in an airplane (ironic, no?) en route from Munich to NY after meetings with BMW execs.