BMW Siri
BMW 5 series
Issue 29 | December 2013
Agency
Serviceplan
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Alexander Schill Executive Creative Director Till Diestel Christoph Nann Copywriter Lukas Weber Account Supervisor Carolin Meyer Junior Copywriter Moritz Conzen Mohamed Quiba
Production Team
Production Company German Wahnsinn Sound Designer Philipp Feit
Date
April 2013
Background
The brief was to create a radio commercial to invite customers to visit their nearest BMW dealership for the launch of the new 5-series. One of the main features of the new car was its connectivity through BMW ConnectedDrive.
Idea
A radio spot was written, which could interact with Apple's speech-recognition software, 'Siri'. The ad asked the listener to activate Siri on their smartphones, whereupon the voice-over dictated the launch date of the new car. This way, an actual appointment was made in the listener's calendar.
It was an interactive invitation.
Results
The spot was just a teaser for a much larger launch campaign. Nevertheless, it drew many listeners to the launch event.
Our Thoughts
As a creative director, one of the questions I always ask my clients is ‘What do you want people to do?’ Not what do you want them to do ultimately. Obviously, you want them to attend the event and buy a car. But what do you want them to do NOW, at the moment of opening the envelope, reading the ad or landing on your homepage?
This is a moment that matters. You have got people’s attention, now give them direction. That’s why I am a fan of this idea. Most radio commercials shout out a phone number in the hope you might ring. In actually getting you to activate Siri on your iPhone, what this ad does is demonstrate BMW’s joined-up thinking rather than just talk about it.