BMW has doubled down on its promise of a more sustainable future by committing to deliver 25 electrified models on road by 2023. Die-hard fans however, have mixed feelings about this transition because they will miss the roaring sounds of the BMW M combustion engine. How could we ease our primary customer base into an entirely new era, while still giving them a chance to hold on to what they love most about our current generation of cars.

We invited BMW M owners for a unique opportunity to immortalize the sounds of their cars forever. The throaty roars of their engines were recorded on location at Dubai Autodrome and turned into NFTs with unique art renditions to pair with the audio. This collection titled BMW Museum of Sound was launched on opensea.io, the largest peer to peer NFT marketplace to be preserved forever, creating perpetual value and nostalgia for owners and fans.

We reached out to some of our most avid fan base to help us introduce this concept to the world. They showed up in strong numbers to the event, ready to archive the iconic sounds of the BMW M engines. This naturally included automobile influencers who further gave us free coverage on their on social platforms simply for the love of cars, and not as a paid promotion. The minted NFTs simply put the whole campaign on a rocketship, being picked up by influential bloggers and magazines earing us millions of free earned media and new fans.

19 BMW M owners were invited for a unique track-day opportunity at Dubai Autodrome. Each car was rigged with high fidelity recording devices that captured the engines sounds in detail. Former DTM champion, Bruno Spengler was invited to set the pace as an added incentive. The audio output of each car was visualized using a bespoke data visualizer created specifically for this campaign and turned into NFTs.

The NFTs were promoted and revealed to the world across our social channels including Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat and TikTok. The massive digital screens at our showrooms also displayed the eye catching art pieces in their full glory.

The ownership of the NFTs have been transferred to the drivers and will perpetually create value for the holders over and above the nostalgic sentiment, by unlocking exclusive experiences and previews from the brand. The 1 of 1 ethically-created NFTs were minted using an environmentally friendly blockchain. They are quite coveted by collectors on opensea.io.

BMW became the first auto brand to successfully launch an NFT of this kind. Even the most seasoned critiques of the NFT world were impressed by the clever use of the engine sounds to create an NFT that’s more than just a fad. And for our die-hard fans, (past, present and future) we created an entirely new way to celebrate their love for our cars. The campaign has garnered press coverage worth millions, and more importantly, the applications for test driving the upcoming electric models have seen a massive spike (+45%) since the launch