BMW has joined Ford in growing media occasions that attempt to deliver messages that move past a product launch and recognize the fading communication electricity of traditional automobile indicates.
On June 25, BMW collected over 400 people — media, influencers, and financial analysts — in its BMW Welt emblem experience middle in Munich to unveil many new products and offer a replacement on its electrification, autonomous-riding and linked-automobile packages.
The occasion, referred to as NextGen, is comparable in format to Ford’s Go Further, a communication strategy that the U.S. Automaker’s European division began in Amsterdam in September 2012 to unveil the brand new Mondeo midsize sedan.
Since then, Ford has skipped numerous essential European vehicle suggests, replicating Go Further events in Barcelona in November 2013 to unveil the new Mustang sports activities vehicle, then in Cologne in November 2016 to disclose the brand new Fiesta small vehicle and this past April, once more in Amsterdam, to reveal the brand new Kuga small SUV, preview the new Puma small SUV and provide an update on electrification.
BMW’s chief technical officer, Klaus Froelich, stated NextGen is a “better format than motor indicates, greater severe, extra talk.”
During NextGen, BMW for the first time confirmed six models; the eight series Gran Coupe, M8 coupe and M8 Cabrio, the new one series 5-door hatch, the three series Touring wagon and remodeled X1 compact SUV. But a lot of these debuts were overshadowed using some other animal no longer previewed before.
The Vision M Next idea is a glimpse of future M top models, combining performance — 600 hp — with a plug-in hybrid powertrain permitting as much as one hundred km of zero-emission using.
The head of sales and advertising for the BMW logo, Peter Nota, turned into no longer mainly worried that the Vision M Next ought to have overshadowed different version debuts: “What is important is that the world talks of BMW,” he informed me.
At the Munich occasion, I ran into Arndt Ellinghorst, a monetary analyst at Evercore ISI in London, who said that he became impressed by the dimensions of NextGen and that he sees how those varieties of occasions will update auto shows over time, imparting advantages in content material, exclusivity and value.
BMW stated it had not decided the frequency of its NextGen events — Ford these days have switched to a three-12 months cadence for its Go Furthers — but does no longer bear in mind this being a one-off.
My take? Mixed.
Events like this allow a deep dive into an automaker’s strategy that is going correctly beyond a product release. These events also plainly show that some automakers want to construct their very own communique silos where they play their very own song, with none outside distraction.
While I completely recognize this view from the automaker’s aspect, I suppose the function of the traditional vehicle suggests I have not to be downplayed.
Even if suffering, traditional suggests remains the precise vicinity to look and speak with automakers and to generate a broader and more significant various view of the whole photograph. And this is what indeed subjects to me.
