Keeler BMW

(source:  New York Times)

BMW of North America will introduce its new brand advertising on Saturday, reinforcing its image as "the ultimate driving machine" as it introduces 14 new models in the United States this year.

Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners, appointed in August by BMW as its lead agency in the United States for national brand creative work and ads for BMW dealers, has produced a new 30-second television spot that will have its premiere on NBC's broadcast of the N.F.L.'s wild-card games.

Unlike BMW's previous global brand campaign by GSD&M of Austin, Tex. ? which focused on the joy of driving a BMW ? the new advertising depicts the BMW as the "ultimate driving machine," whatever the model. The tagline has been used continuously by BMW since it was created by Martin Puris, then the chief executive of Ammirati & Puris, in 1975.

The new spot features, in quick succession, a BMW M3 Coupe on a track, followed by a BMW X5 in sand, then a BMWi8 on a bridge, then a BMW 7 Series in a tunnel, before finishing with a montage of the BMW family of cars. The voice-over says, "We don't make sports cars. We don't make S.U.V.'s. We don't make hybrids, and we don't make luxury sedans. We only make one thing, the ultimate driving machine."

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Dan Creed, vice president of marketing for BMW of North America, said, "We're in the middle of an extremely significant product offensive."

The introduction of 14 models in 2012 will be the most by BMW in the United States in one year in at least a decade. With the new campaign, Mr. Creed said, the company is trying to "take the ultimate driving machine and define what it will be in the future."

Ed Brojerdi, co-chief creative officer of Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal, a New York-based part of MDC Partners, said the agency was dealing "with one of the most iconic taglines in marketing. We needed to make sure the marketing is as encompassing as the portfolio. Big brands have a focused point of view, they stand for something. BMW evokes the joy and passion for driving, sheer driving pleasure."

After Saturday's football games, the new spot will run during prime-time programs like "House," "The Big Bang Theory," "Modern Family" and "Law and Order: SVU" on the Fox, CBS, ABC and NBC networks. It also will run nationally on cable channels throughout the year.

According to Trudy Hardy, manager of marketing for BMW North America, the ad is aimed at the company's "normal buying demographic," men and women age 35 to 54.

Mr. Creed said BMW's 2012 advertising budget would be "slightly more" than its budget in 2011. According to Kantar Media, the company spent $133 million on all advertising in the United States in 2009, $166 million in 2010, and $109 million in the first nine months of 2011, slightly up from $108 million spent in the same period in 2010.

Mr. Creed said that for the luxury segment of automobiles, 2011 was a "two-horse race between BMW and Mercedes-Benz from a volume standpoint" in the American market. The BMW Group announced Thursday that sales of BMW brand vehicles in the United States were up 12.6 percent in 2011, to 247,907 vehicles, while Mercedes-Benz USA said on Thursday that sales of that brand rose 13.3 percent in 2011, to 245,231 vehicles.

Noting he would "rather go into any downturn with the newest products rather than the oldest" and with more efficient and dynamic products than their predecessors, Mr. Creed said, "regardless of which way the economy goes in 2012, we feel BMW is in the strongest position of our competitive set."

Christopher Cedergren, managing director of Iceology, a Los Angeles consulting and research company that has worked with BMW in the past, called the new TV spot an effort by the automaker to "go back to its performance roots as the ultimate driving machine. The previous campaign was too nebulous. It blurred the image of the BMW brand, made it too much like its competitors. It kind of walked away from its positioning about its driving performance."

"They're trying to pull on the heartstrings of consumers again. The joy campaign really didn't pull on the heartstrings that effectively,"' he said, adding, "The luxury business is an emotional business. If you want to sell a product that commands a premium price, you need to tug on the heartstrings, the passion points of consumers."

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Christie L. Nordhielm, an associate professor of business administration at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, said that although the ad's depiction of multiple car models was "not particularly unique, the message in the campaign is very unique. I don't recall another automotive company emphasizing the overall corporate benefit, while expressly de-emphasizing the specific types of cars, in the last 30 years."

BMW, she added, "in a sense is the Apple of the automotive industry. Apple delivers great user experience across products, and BMW delivers an exceptional experience across all types of automobiles."

Renée Richardson Gosline, an assistant professor of marketing at M.I.T.'s Sloan School of Management, said "a campaign that emphasizes a consistent brand essence is powerful, but BMW has to keep in mind that luxury consumers seek distinction, even within the brand. So, along with the egalitarian message that all BMWs are 'ultimate driving machines,' BMW has to make owners of different models each feel special as well, by building relationships with the owners of each model."

She said that could be done with customized direct mail campaigns or online or offline community groups.