BMW sponsors personalized mobile video advertisements in China

BMW has selected China for a world-first in advertising - personalized video messages delivered directly to cell phones.

The targeted messages, distributed Dec 21-24 in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, addressed individual customers with a holiday greeting that is uniquely tailored to a specific individual.

For BMW, being first in advertising innovation is second nature. The company that brought the world BMW Films and the eight part branded entertainment series “The Hire”, is now partnering with mobile technology provider Clip in Touch (http://www.clipintouch.com/) to engage their audience in a new way. Initial response to the campaign has been very positive, generating more test drives in a three day period than at any time this year.

BMW is growing quickly in China. Sales are up this year more than 40% to 90,000 units. For the launch of its new X1 series, the German luxury automaker recognized it needed to reach a younger demographic in the most relevant medium- mobile.

Unlike Europe or North America, in China the mobile device is the primary internet access tool. There are roughly 165 million high-speed, 3G mobile broadband subscribers in China and these are extremely active mobile internet users. In fact, 58% of Chinese mobile web users post Web 2.0 content via their handsets, compared with 41% of those in the US (Phone Valley Media Scene, 2009).

Technology for the campaign was provided by Clip in Touch. The company provides a platform for sending advertising campaigns via MMS. The uniqueness comes in allowing users to personalize, edit and add their own voice, video and text to any advertising campaign.

CEO Rami Reshef emphasizes the importance of engagement in advertising, rather than impressions. “I tip my hat to BMW for taking this risk. Chinese mobile owners have told us loud and clear—advertising that is personalized and engaging is not only welcome but something they will pass along to their friends”.