Tag Archives: 2020

Editorial

The 15 Best BMW Commercial Ads of the Decade

The 2010s were a big decade for BMW that saw some major firsts — like the first fully electric models to come to market — and the 100th anniversary of the company’s founding. Over these last 10 years, the German automaker also produced a lot of ads — a few of which stood out more than others.

Here is our roundup of the 15 best BMW commercials of the decade.

15. Are We There Yet?

This ad from 2019 is a look back through time at some of the highlights of BMW, like the first electric version, the M1 and the company’s 2014 design for the U.S. bobsledding team. The commercial also looks to the future and drops some visuals of what to expect in the next decade.

14. BMW X5: The Back-Backseat Driver

This humorous ad from BMW is all about the X5, an SUV big enough to fit both backseat drivers and back-backseat drivers — like the grandmother featured in the commercial, who tells slightly exaggerated stories about her past.

13. The Destination

One of the many BMW ads to play on memory and nostalgia, this commercial — created for the 2017 Road Home sales event — shows the kinds of memories you can make in a BMW, or, how it’s not all about the destination.

12. Like New Again

Many of BMW’s ads toward the end of the decade had the company looking backward for inspiration. One of the best examples of this is the ads from the Like New Again campaign. It riffed off of six years’ worth of BMW commercials and ads — TV spots, radio ads and flyers — to promote certified preowned BMWs.

The campaign was clever, but maybe a little too self-aware for its own good.

11. Mini 2016 Super Bowl Spot

This Super Bowl Spot, the last we’ve seen so far from BMW, promotes the label-defying Mini. The ad is probably best remembered for its interesting celebrity lineup, which included appearances from Serena Williams, T-Pain, Harvey Keitel and Tony Hawk.

10. BMW i3: Newfangled Idea

Another ad playing off the newness of electric vehicles, this Super Bowl Spot from 2015 brought together former “Today” show hosts Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel. They compared the launch of EVs to other new ideas, like the internet back in the ‘90s, with the tagline, “big ideas take a little getting used to.”

9. BMW and Spotify Collab

In 2019, BMW teamed up with Spotify to curate the perfect BMW-themed driving playlists. All in all, the company put together enough music to back 85 hours of driving. The collaboration also included unique, in-app visuals from New Zealand artists designed to be paired with the music.

8. This BMW Drunk Driving PSA

This print PSA from BMW about drunk driving created a lot of buzz, for better or worse, and briefly reignited the conversation around social drinking and drunk driving.

7. BMW i: Drive the Future

One of the biggest developments of the past decade was the rise and regular advertisement of electric vehicles. This ad, from late 2018, uses slick, glossy visuals and a sophisticated voice-over to associate BMW’s line of hybrids and all-electric vehicles with the future.

6. BMW Accelerate

This bold print ad campaign from BMW South Africa takes full advantage of some gorgeous wide shots to show the kind of distance you can cover with a BMW S 1000 RR motorcycle. This bike accelerates from 0 to 100 in just three seconds.

5. BMW’s Crying Billboard

This innovative ad uses a unique billboard design that captures rain and causes the face on the advertisement to start crying. It may be a bit of a stretch to call the billboard effective — it’s not exactly clear what’s being advertised, other than BMW — but it is certainly different.

4. BMW’s Night Vision Billboards

This spot is definitely the highest-tech ad on the list, and possibly one of the highest-tech campaigns you’ve probably ever seen.

BMW wanted to reduce the number of crashes caused by wildlife on remote Austrian roads. It designed a night-vision billboard, based on the same tech used by its cars’ night-vision cameras, to help drivers spot deer planning to cross the highway.

According to BMW, not a single crash happened while the boards were up.

3. Retrospect

To celebrate the company’s 100th anniversary, BMW commissioned this nostalgic ad about the past — and how, as it says, “Memories never age.”

2. BMW X7: Legend

This spot, one of the last few of the decade, used lush storybook and fantasy visuals to show off the X7, BMW’s 2019 full-size luxury SUV. It’s probably the most dense and complicated BMW ad of the 2010s, and one of the brand’s few ads to rely heavily on CGI.

1. The Small Escape

The Small Escape was one of the last BMW ads of the decade and almost certainly the most cinematic. The commercial, which is better described as a short film, is a dramatized retelling of escape from East to West Berlin using a classic 1955 BMW Isetta — a 13-horsepower car that could barely seat two passengers.

The short film also hooked into a larger ad campaign, including an article that tells the full story of the escape.

Rounding up BMW’s Best Ads From the 2010s

The last decade has been big for BMW. Over the past 10 years, the company used most of its advertising to look back to the company’s past but also to look forward to new technology, like electric vehicles.

Now, there’s no telling where the brand will go in the 2020s. If they’re anything like the 2010s, though, BMW will be looking for ways to advertise both its history and its future.

Information

BMW Reveals 2020 M340i

BMW has teased us with the reinvention of the 3-Series for a while now, and while they did reveal the 2020 seventh generation 3-series in October, we’re more excited about the new sporty version of this car.

The car giant just revealed the M-variant for this new 3-Series – the M340i. Let’s take a closer look at what this sporty little BMW will bring to the table, and when you can expect to find it at your local dealership.

Image: BMW

Some Stiff Competition

The new M340i will be equipped with a 3.0L Turbo in-line 6 cylinder engine. It’s actually the the same engine that sat under the hood of the sixth generation M340i, but it’s undergone a makeover to pull even more horsepower and torque out of the German engineering.

This particular engine style puts it in direct competition with two other luxury cars in it’s class – the S4 by Audi and the C43 by Mercedes, which both have a 3.0L straight six engine.

The M340i falls squarely in the middle when it comes to horsepower, with it’s newly tuned engine generating 382 horsepower. For comparison, the Mercedes generates 385hp and the S4 brings up the rear with 354 hp.

All the Bells and Whistles

In addition to the engine, the M340i is equipped with all the bells and whistles. One thing that might disappoint BMW purists is the fact that the only transmission option currently available for this model is an 8-speed automatic.

It does come equipped with optional all wheel drive. While it doesn’t make up for the lack of a manual transmission, it is a pretty decent consolation prize.

Other standard equipment includes an electronically controlled differential, and M Sport brakes with a 13.7 inch rotor and 4 piston calipers in the front. Rear brakes are reduced to a single piston caliper.

The suspension in the new M340i has been upgraded too, using a new technology to minimize the amount of road bumps that you feel behind the wheel. The front shocks work to absorb rebound, while the rear shocks can alter the compression as needed.

Of course, if you want all the bells and whistles, you can choose the optional electronically controlled adaptive shocks for an additional cost.

Even the exterior has gotten an upgrade. While it doesn’t look much different than the previous generations of this model, the body shell is lighter and stiffer, decreasing the car’s overall weight by roughly 120 pounds.

BMW hasn’t released any pricing information for this new 3-Series sports car yet, but it should be making an appearance in BMW showrooms across the country in July of 2019 to be ready for the 2020 model year.

We should be seeing price information in the coming months, ahead of the car’s official release. We can’t wait to get behind the wheel of this new M340i though, just to test out that new suspension.

While the lack of a manual transmission might make some drivers balk, BMW definitely tries to make up for it with all the bells and whistles that they’ll be including as standard equipment on this sporty new model.