What if, rather than avoid the car ad cliché of a man driving a car on a strip of road that tests the car’s performance, you turn it into something that IS interesting. Serviceplan Campaign International has driven BMW’s THE 8 on a canal. It’s the first time that a car has been actually driven on the canals in Venice. The film crew was granted permission to film with a video drone and the city allowed pontoon strips to be constructed especially for the shoot.
The visual splendour of a car driving on a floating “road” one lane wide with the beauty of Venice as the backdrop is arresting, but Serviceplan has also added a story to its ad. It’s the story of a young boy who’s wild about cars but is growing up in Venice – a city with no cars, just a lot of boats. Twenty years later, the boy becomes the driver of the first car to be driven on Venice’s canals.
BMW noted, “No matter what we have done in life, what we have achieved, or what the future will hold for us – there is a certain magic to those moments we did something for the first time: the first time we kissed, the first step we took, the first time man landed on the moon. These are the moments we will never forget, we will remember differently, as being more pure, more intense. That’s because doing something for the first time often takes courage, it takes guts to question the given; it takes imagination to find that unbeaten path, the power to dream big – and the audacity to make it happen. Therefore we took THE 8 to Venice, Italy – a place where no car has ever driven before – a place where a great past meets an exciting present.”
The campaign film, directed by Daniel Wolfe out of Anorak Production, includes BMW’s new luxury range identity, Bayerische Motoren Werke.
The campaign features 45-second, 30-second and 15-second TVCs, which will be broadcast on TV and online, and will roll out globally as THE 8 is launched around the world.
An online feature, City of no Cars, is in development, featuring impressions of Venice as the city where everything and everyone is transported by boat and no cars exist, interviews with Venetians, and behind the scenes of how Serviceplan pulled the stunt off. Short social media edits will be shared on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
Credits:
Agency: Serviceplan Campaign International
Global Chief Creative Officer Serviceplan Group: Alexander Schill
Executive Creative Partners: Markus Kremer & Thomas Heyen
Creative Director: Kolja Danquah
Senior Art Director: Damian Kuczmierczyk
Senior Copywriter: Bastian Tripp
Junior Art Directors: Daniel William Hill & Phillip Trübiger
Managing Partner: Florian Klietz
Management Supervisor: Kristian von Elm
Producer: Henning Rieseweber
Client: BMW AG
Director Brand Communication BMW BMWi BMW M: Uwe Dreher
Head of International Campaigns, Artwork, Film, Entertainment Marketing: Kirsty Skinner-Gerth
Head of International Campaigns BMW, BMWi, BMW M: Ann-Kathrin Geertz
Project Manager, International Campaigns BMW, BMWi, BMW M: Gabriele Lemmle
