BMW is back in action! After taking a 10 year hiatus, the iconic automaker has inked a huge new product placement deal. Once a staple of action movies, the BMW symbol has been notably missing from major productions since 2002. After creating their short film series “The Hire”, which was at the time considered ground breaking online entertainment content, they made an executive decision to switch their marketing dollars to sports backing Formula One and America’s Cup car and sailing races.
This time around BMW is upping the ante. In addition to providing 2 custom made cars for filming, they are offering customers the chance to go to one of 200 special advance screenings of “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol.” This is an incredibly smart move by the German automaker in a culture where customers expect to be be able to interact with their favorite brands one-on-one. While still holding the typical contest to send a few lucky winners to the red carpet premier, this extra initiative allows more fans to interact with the brand and ultimately create long-lasting loyalty.
During the film patrons will get to see first-hand the newest in-car technology on the market, ConnectedDrive. This is a huge leap forward from their history with the James Bond franchise where they only showcased invented technology. New model BMWs will have available options such as interactive traffic and parking assists, movile device connectivity, entertainment apps, and windshield displays. Even the actual car from the movie is being re-created and sold as the i8 hybrid and electric sports car.
From a consumer stand point, I don’t typically mind product placement where it makes sense. If during the RomCom of the month Katherine Heigl takes her newly adopted children to McDonald’s instead of Burger Barn it helps to create a more realistic scene. However, in BMW’s first product placement attempt with James Bond, they caused several scenes in the movies to be less realistic. Avid fans know that since 1960 Bond has only consumed Smirnoff martinis, worn a Rolex watch and driven an Aston Martin. It was shameful of the movie creators to “sell out” the James Bond character for BMW and later Omega.
Despite all the positive press surrounding this partnership, it still stands to reason that the inclusion of BMW could be overkill and gimmicky in the newest chapter of Mission:Impossible. Guess we’ll have to pay the $10 (or $0.99 from RedBox) to find out!
Source: BMW back for film ‘Mission’ on Variety