#URL300KM
BMW
Issue 39 | June 2016
Agency
Buzzman
Creative Team
President And Executive Creative Director Georges Mohammed-Cherif Vice – President Thomas Granger Associate Director Julien Levilain Concept Miguel Durao Art Directors Stephane Santana Clément Séchet Copywriters Benjamin Dessagne Hanna Larue
Production Team
Business Director Benedicte Muller Account Executive Thomas Gracia Head Of Digital Production Julien Barokas Digital Project Manager François Cavalin Communication And PR Manager Clara Bascoul-Gauthier Communication And PR Manager Marine Nedjam
Other Credits
BMW France Marketing Director Pierre Jalady Head Of The BMWi Brand For France Olivier Dumain Head Of Marketing And Communication Carole Guilbert Marketing Project Manager Fabrice Porchier Digital Project Manager Sandra Vidal
Date
November 2015
Background
The biggest problem in selling electric cars was the perception that they did not have much range. Drivers were afraid of getting stranded without any power.
The BMW i3, however, had a range of 300km, the highest in its category.
While potential buyers always liked to test drive a car before purchasing, trying to persuade anyone to go for a 300 kilometre test drive was not feasible.
The challenge was to find another way to show people just how far 300 kilometres was.
Idea
The solution was a competitive interactive digital game experience that allowed potential buyers to experience a 300km journey in a BMW i3 on Google Street View.
The game was called #URL300Km and thanks to Street View geo-location technology, test drivers could start from their home address on an AR-type journey, as seen from the inside of an i3, complete with dashboard satnav showing the route. Every time they typed an additional character, they travelled further along the 300km embedded journey.
The fastest person to transpose the URL at the end of the game won a BMW i3 – just over 39 minutes.
The aim was to show drivers just how far they could go, for example to visit parents or friends who lived in another part of the country.
During driving the experience, pop-ups promoted real-life test drives.
Results
Including €22,000 media spend, the campaign reached 16.3m people.
A total of 60,000 games were played, with an average of 2.4 games per player for an average 12.34 minutes. The longest game took 11 hours.
A total of 1,253 real-life test drives were booked.
Our Thoughts
Buzzman turned the electric car's perceived weakness – range – on its head with a modern iteration of an old-fashioned product demonstration.
An old-school product demo might have shown the car going from, say, Calais to Paris (about 300km), and all the occupants expressing amazement they got there. Boring.
But Buzzman still needed a way to show potential buyers what a 300km journey actually looked like and make it as relevant and personal as possible.
Locating the 'driver' inside the car itself, with windscreen view and the satnav showing the journey profile, made it feel very real. The ability for 'drivers' to start from home made it immediately personal.
It's more fun and engaging to turn it into a game using technology as advanced as the car itself.