GLOBAL, FEBRUARY 2011 – Luxury car brands BMW and Aston Martin took their race online last month through films offered in installments designed to build social media buzz.
The challenge is not new for BMW, whose celebrated BMW Films campaign featured a star-studded roll call of talents and directors. This time around, BMW uses the power of the documentary to Activate the Future, a campaign developed at Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners for the electric sports car, the ActiveE. The documentaries have Blade Runner designer Syd Mead, Google Vice-President Marissa Mayer, and astronaut Buzz Aldrin talking about mobility and the future. Viewers are encouraged to share their own views on the topic on their site, Twitter, and Facebook page.
Aston Martin takes its first steps in the use of film in a large digital campaign launched a week before BMW. The films feature a group of four on a mission to make a top-secret, urgent delivery using the Aston Martin Rapide. The film has a slick James Bond quality to it, and no wonder, as the Aston Martin is the 007’s current ride of choice. The Rapide True Power films are part of a bigger digital campaign by R/GA London with partners Bang & Olufsen, Bill Amberg, Louis Roederer, and Ozwald Boateng. From the film and clicking through their partner sites, viewers can collect clues for a chance win a trip for two to Le Mans, France. There is also a free Aston Martin app from iTunes.
The full Aston Martin film is now available, while BMW’s “The New City” can be viewed on the Activate the Future website. More films will be launched over the next three Tuesdays of February.
While both films are impressive, their success as measured by viral-bility shows the race to be a rather slow one. Rapide True Power has 3,199 likes on the website and 331 tweets, while the ActiveE has a modest 1,840 likes on the website itself, 426 likes on its Facebook page and some 503 Twitter followers.
