It struck me as kind of odd when I saw a couple of BMW ads published on Youtube earlier this week. As usual, I thought this might’ve been a sort of mistake, the kind that happens all the time, and usually gets fixed in the first hour. However, when I noticed that those same ads were still live on Youtube today, I realized something’s going on and decided to do some digging. As it turns out, this was no mistake but a rather clever way to promote Certified Pre-Owned cars.
Watching these ads you might notice that they used to be on TV a couple of years back. For example, the Astronaut clip, where a kid seated in the back of an M6 Gran Coupe watches a rocket take off, caused quite a stir when it was originally launched some three years ago. However, this time, you are reminded that while the years went by, the car is still as good as new, only with a lower price tag as it would be Certified Pre-Owned now.
The clips include voiceovers from Chris Pine and are cleverly reworked to get the point across. It’s a bold move from BMW’s new marketing team over at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners who decided to use the clips made by the previous agency holding that title, KBS. Using pre-run ads to promote pre-owned cars is actually quite a brilliant idea that gets the point across. The notes Pine makes are also funny and explain why you’re seeing the same ads run again.
What’s even more interesting is that none of the ads are older than five years. That’s because that’s the age limit for cars sold under BMW’s Certified Pre-Owner program, a nice little touch if you ask me, only to go nicely with the notice on the bottom of the screen saying ‘Made from 100% recycled BMW commercial’.
