Eight weeks of freelance that became five years and two markets
Interone China held BMW and MINI, each as an above-the-line account and a digital account, each with its own creative and account teams.
I came in October 2008 as a freelancer, for eight weeks of Flash and design on BMW digital. I stayed longer.
Where things stood
In 2009 Interone lost the BMW above-the-line pitch, a major part of its business.
This made the digital BMW contract the agency’s cornerstone.
A year later the remaining contract was on the table too, and the ECD on the account left.
There was nobody in the role to defend it.
In a market where prestige and size sold cars, BMW had to keep its standing.
MINI, a small car from a brand few people knew, had to be understood at all.
How it went
BMW: the pitch that never happened
I stepped into the ECD role to fill the gap until a replacement was found. The relationship I had built with BMW’s Chinese marketing manager held, and BMW cancelled the digital pitch. The agency kept me in the role.
From there the account grew from the website and car configurators into everything digital: every car launch, every piece of content, at least one campaign a month, in English and Chinese, in collaboration with Interone in Germany.
MINI: a growing range for an audience new to the brand
Becoming ECD also meant taking MINI digital. The MINI model range kept growing, with new chassis and engine ranges, and the Chinese audience was still getting to know the brand. So the site was built around the cars and their differences, focussed on explaining and brand-building. I ran the digital side hand in hand with the account’s above-the-line ECD.
Japan, 2011
We pitched for BMW and MINI Japan and won. This extended the same work into another language, plus local campaigns. We established a small office in Japan for account management while the creative work stayed in China.
What it did
The campaigns that grew out of the platform work were too numerous to count, but some made genuine headlines: the 1 Series crop circle drew 20 million views and all three models sold out for twelve months within days; the X5M and X6M models, though far higher priced, equally sold out for the year the day immediately after launch. Social, viral and video channels in combination with the websites worked incredibly well for sales.
Recognition
New York Festivals Gold & Finalist 2013 · ROI China Gold 2012, 2013 and Silver 2014 · Great Wall China Grand Prix & Gold 2012 · DMA Digital Media Gold & Bronze 2012 · Long (Gunn) Silver 2013 · ADQUAN Top 10 Interactive 2013 and Marketing Top 10 2013 · DAMNDIGITAL Creative Agency of the Year 2012
My role
At Interone/BBDO in China I unified the traditional and digital departments across Beijing and Shanghai into one team of 40, so creatives worked across brands instead of in silos, centralised the creative services for BMW China and Japan, and tripled the client portfolio. BMW and MINI were the accounts the team was built around.
Across the agency, the client portfolio tripled during the same period — from Canon, Intel and Castrol to HP, Hilton and others.