Many companies still have a fax machine. Something they haven’t used for over a decade. But still they have one. And it’s still operational. 600 companies near BMW dealers received a one-pager by fax that confronted them with the fact that their fleet can use an update too. That is in a way, also outdated.

Companies face uncertainty when challenged by new technology. The fear of the unknown makes them stuck in old habits. By comparing the change from fax to email to the shift to electric, companies are inspired to embrace this change and update their fleet. Because old technology belongs in the past.

A channel that was proclaimed dead, was revitalized one last time to encourage companies in their shift to electric vehicles.

To create awareness for the switch to electric, fax machines were used as a comparison for the succesful integration of new technology. The shift from fax to email back in the days was used as an eye-opener. By sending a simple black and white one-page fax message, companies were confronted with the fact that they still own old technology. BMW was only one call away to inform them about electric driving and provide testdrives. In order to do something about their lack of innovation, they were guided by BMW in their transformation to electric.

This campaign cost merely one fax paper and a few hours of faxing to generate 54 new leads in three weeks time. Considering the low cost of those faxes, the return of investment is extremely high.

The leads were offered test-drives, and explanations on how companies can actually make the switch towards a new way of driving. Those who did not respond to the fax were followed up by a personal phone call with an invitation to discover electric driving.

In 62% of the follow-up phone calls the fleet manager indicated that they had seen the fax message. This means that the ‘not so innovative’ way of communicating managed to get a lot of awareness with the target audience.