BMW BLOG

Well, since we’re on the BMW creative marketing subject and the idea of viral videos, we have a new one for you. As they announced nearly two weeks ago during the Z4 Roadster media launch,  BMW is stepping up their efforts in promoting the new Z4, online and offline.

Patrick McKenna, Manager BMW Marketing and Communication, mentioned at the time about the multiple online and TV campaigns that will start shortly, from homepages takeover on MSN and Yahoo, to TV ads and a documentary on Discovery HD Theater.

If you’re a loyal reader of our blog or follow the BMW news, we have no doubt that you’re familiar by now with the phrase “Expression of Joy”, the catchy marketing slogan chosen by BMW for the new Z4 Roadster. So, continuing down the same path of painting dynamics, BMW took to the streets of London with a massive BMW Z4 Augmented Reality symbol, a laptop and a webcam.

The result?

Early next year, BMW aligned to the latest “marketing standards” and launched the “Rampenfest” viral video which was supposed to keep us on our toes prior to the new 1 Series Coupe launch. The viral marketing initiative transposed onto the new X1 as well and just a few days before the unveiling at the Paris Motor Show, a BMW video created lots of buzz all over the internet.

Now with just a few weeks before the official unveling of the BMW X1 production model, BMW has stepped up their creative marketing efforts and launched a serious of viral videos onto a Youtube channel and also, on a Facebook page dedicated to the X1.

Now if you’re expecting to see any sign of the X1 in these videos, you might just go ahead and move along. These videos are simply a way to promote the latest BMW marketing theme: “Joy”. We spoke about that yesterday when BMW AG announced GSD&M Idea City as becoming the lead global agency of creative for BMW brand advertising communications. The first task for GSD&M is the development of a new global communication campaign focused on the “Joy” theme.

Could these videos be part of that?

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No, this time I am not putting the name Isetta in the same basket with all the Project i rumors, but I rather prefer to focus on something less serious, definitely more fun than all those rumors floating around. I’m also not sure how many of you have seen the old-school Isetta in real life, but that car is tiny, it was without a doubt designed as a microcar and the bodystyle leaves no debating.

So, you would assume that taking that 50’s old school bubble car to a closed course or mini-track, if you wanna call it that way, it would be a bit……absurd, but as I have always said, those crazy BMW fans have no limits. And honestly, I’m glad they did it, it is always fun to watch some different videos of our lovely bimmers, rather than TopGear like straight line races or other fast cars revving up their “high horses”.

It gets even more hilarious when the driver starts going through that course and taking some sharp corners and of course, the three-wheeled Isetta has a hard time “standing straight”.

Recently we have started to focus on the BMW’s safety features and talked about them in several articles. While many of us agree that our bimmers are one of the most beautiful out there, the following questions arises: are they the safest ones also? Some BMW models receive higher ratings than others, but you always  wonder how the car will handle itself during an accident.

Just a while back, we posted some videos of the new 2009 BMW 7 Series going through several crashing scenarious and today, we’re going to show you some crash tests videos of the smaller MINIs. We’re definitely not crash test engineers, but judging from the videos, despite its small size, the MINI Cooper handles itself quite well in severe side impact with a larger vehicle.

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The fellows at Garage419 have done it again and this time, is bigger than ever. We’ve been a huge fan or their videos and especially the BMW related ones, recently we’ve seen them reviewing the 750i with their unique style, but this time, they took their video production  to another level.

How did they do that? Simply, they took an amazing car, BMW 335i Convertible, and let it “freely run” on one of the most beautiful roads in America: the famous Pacific Coast Highway in California.

We’ve been there recently as well and  it is indeed a gorgeous itinerary, but unfortunately, we didn’t have a convertible. No worries though, Matt Farrah from Garage419 will show you how it’s properly done.

And yes, the 335i Convertible helps a lot by being in this picture.

I’ve lived the day to see this comparison, but apparently the fellows at Autocar UK found it interesting to put the BMW M5, a luxury sport sedan, against the Audi Q7, an all-wheel-drive large crossover with an SUV figure.

4RingBlog has a video for us showing the two vehicles going head-to-head in a mini review. I still find it odd to see a 5,336 lbs(2,420 kg) vehicle being compared to a “natural born” fast car, weighing only 4,050 lbs.

But I guess those odd reviews make things more interesting.

Thanks for the tip Sjoerd!

The popular show Fifth Gear has taken the  BMW M3 to the driver’s dreamland, as they call it, the famous Abu Dhabi track. Many people, including the Fifth Gear folks, call it the “Greatest Driving Road In The World” and judging from the video, it lives up to its expectations.

Now, add the BMW M3 into the equation and you have your dream right here…virtually only for some of us.

Enjoy the video and remember, it is not always about the car, but rather the surroundings.

[Source: Carversation ]

BMW-web.tv has just released a video of the BMW 7 Series test crash. For the first time, you can see the new BMW 7 Series being put through different accident scenarios.

You can see how the car responds to frontal and side impact, along with overturning.

But let’s let the specialists tell us more.

BMW X6 M made its international debut at the New York Auto Show just a few days back. We had the opportunity to inspect closely the new BMW X6 M , taking plenty of photos and a short video.

Even though we weren’t armed this time with the highest end video camera equipment this time, we decided to take some footage of the X6 M displayed there. At a first glance, the BMW X6 M looks like any other regular X6 model, but getting closer to the car, we’re starting to see some of the famous M design elements. Up front, the very aggressive front bumper with large air intakes openings indicate that we are dealing with a sport version of the production model, then the “M gills” on the side confirm that we are looking at an M model.

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We’re back with more videos of newly and already controversial BMW X5 M and X6 M models. For the past two days, we have been keeping you updated with official photos, wallpapers and more videos.

Now, we’re going to take you on a virtual ride along the race track at Ascari, Marbella in Spain. We have three new videos, including one featuring Marc Surer, a former Formula 1 driver, talking about the X6 M.

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