BMW’s classic car ad (long winding roads etc) for its first all-electric car, the iX2, has a virtual influencer twist. BMW agency partner, Media.Monks, part of The Marcom Engine, has created a story around the iX2, in which virtual creator and digital muse, Lil Miquela, breaks into the real world and falls in love with human life. The film was directed by Stefanie Soho from BWGTBLD and the campaign, Make it Real, is tied to BMW’s brand vision, Freude (joy) Forever.
Lil Miquela is an immensely popular virtual influencer, with 2.7 million Instagram followers.
Stefan Ponikva, vice president BMW Brand communication and experience stated, “People have been creating emotions and personal memories in BMWs for over 100 years. The world and the industry are changing rapidly; Digitalisation and electrification are finding their way, not only in the product but also in marketing. These advances are important and in the future vehicles will continue to move real people through real worlds and in addition through virtual worlds. We have made this bridge-building the core of our BMW iX2 campaign and the result touches hearts.”
Patrick Klebba, executive creative director at Media.Monks, added, “Amidst all the Web 3.0, Metaverse, artificial intelligence push of the past two years, this crafty piece of storytelling is all about real life. Now Lil Miquela reminds us of what we have, and how beautiful it is, and how lucky we are to have it – this is what we want people to feel.”
Make it Real is running globally launched in BMW’s core markets across EMEA, APAC and the United States. The films and stills will be shown online as part of a wider digital and social media campaign. Photography is by Chris Nolte-Kuhlmann.
Credits
Client: The BMW Group
Head of Production: Max Bauer
Campaign Manager: Christina Von Jakubowski
Project Managers: Daniela Sykes & Lisa Schmack
Lil Miquela Agency: Dapper Labs
Creative Director: Jessica Currie
CG Lead: Dhairya Patel
Agency: The Marcom Engine
Account Management: Susanne Schwermer & Nicole Niemann
Executive Creative Directors: Patrick Klebba & Christof Deutscher
Creative Director & Project Lead: Mario Zaradic
Art Directors: Tomic Lee, Moe Qubia & Junggle Kim
Copywriters: Oliver Schnitzer & Poppy Kilby-Tyre
Project Management: Britta Meisterjahn
Strategy Director: Santiago Ramirez
Executive Producer: Patrick Cahill
Senior Producer (Film): Alexandra Kaesler
Producer (Artwork): Max Huber
Post Producer (Artwork): Vivianne Bonnefond
Post-Production Support (Film): Andrej Loebel
Production & Post-Production Film: BWGTBLD
Executive Producer: Julian Holland
Director: Stefanie Soho
Director of Photography: Oliver Millar
Music: Hugo Dubery and Gustav Karlström
Editing: Nik Kohler
Styling: Harper Slate, Julia Quante
Grading: Mikey Rossiter @ Rare Medium New York
Line Producer: Tom Erhardt
Post Producers: Claudia Reissen & Victor de Castillo
Service Production: Bas Films
Post Production: Rohtau London
Executive Creative Director & VFX Supervisor: Jordi Bares
Executive Producer, Head of Production & Sustainability: Josh King
Post Producer: Romilly Endacott
AI Artist: Ahmed Abdelnaby
Senior CG Car Asset, Model & Texturing: Narek Gabazyan
Senior Lighting & FX TD: Mathias Villemont
Lead Nuke & Flame Compositor: Diego Camacho
Lead Flame Compositor: HongRu Chen
Service Production Artwork: Falca
Service Producer: Jack Daniel-Dempsey
Photographer: Chris Noltekuhlmann
Photo Assistant: Florian Brandl
Post-Production: ReCom
Post-Production Artists: Pepe Alram, Daniel Seiler & Katharina Löffler
Post-Production Supervisor: Lars Wittmak
