A NEW WAY TO EXPERIENCE BMW

Designed as a window shape, we discovered Hofmeister Kink-shaped roads are also perfect showcases for BMW’s legendary cornering abilities. In addition to showing the brand literally written into the road, this project creates a new way to experience BMW. Throughout development, we looked to connect digital and driving: 2.5-million individualized emails direct owners to the nearest Kink that matches their vehicle. Gamification incentivizes participation. Map integration facilitates routing. And BMW owners everywhere are finding and driving Kinks, including BMW Car Clubs of America, which used the platform for an epic +30-car driving tour.

THE POST-PURCHASE BUZZKILL

Buying a BMW is an exciting experience. Once customers receive their new vehicle, however, they often feel a significant drop in brand love as the relationship changes from courtship to transactional, dominated by service reminders and aftersales messages. This critical part of the customer journey is notoriously difficult terrain for automotive marketers. And the stakes are high: as loyalty levels during ownership are a leading indicator for future purchase intent and overall lifetime value.

BRIEF

Engage current BMW owners with an experience-based program that deepens loyalty and excites fandom during the critical ownership phase of the customer journey.

OBJECTIVES

• Spark engagement among BMW owners and fans.

• Deepen the perceived value of ownership, a bellwether of loyalty and repeat purchase.

• Generate awareness and appreciation of an iconic (but under-penetrated) brand asset.

• Bolster BMW’s innovation credentials at a time of unprecedented category change (electrification).

A WINDOW INTO BRAND LOVE

Though not widely known, the rear window of a BMW contains powerful DNA to the brand’s originality and performance dynamics. If we could activate the Hofmeister Kink for modern audiences, we could deepen loyalty, stimulate joyful engagement, and have owners look again at their BMW with fresh eyes – reappraisal.

THE HOFMEISTER KINK

An AI-driven data visualization that turns a hidden-in-plain-sight design detail into a 1-to-1 drivable brand experience for owners and fans.

UNLOCKING THE EXPERIENCE FOR OWNERS

To activate the platform, we sent each one of 2.5 million BMW owners an individualized email spotlighting an image of their specific vehicle’s Hofmeister Kink paired with a stunning satellite image of the nearest matching road. With a click, they are mapped and ready to drive it – and to experience the brand like never before.

AUDIENCE

Primary: Current BMW owners

Secondary: BMW enthusiasts and fans

INSIGHT

BMW superfans are unparalleled in their appreciation for every detail, including the brand’s distinct design vocabulary. If we could help more casual owners and fans see the brand through their eyes, we could open a window into deeper brand love and loyalty.

DATA-ENABLED EXPERIENCE

While the general population may discover HofmesiterKink.com organically or through paid media, a BMW owner’s first experience is likely to be more individualized, enabled by data in BMW’s owner ID records. These are real-time datasheets containing everything from the owner’s name, email, vehicle model, year, trim level, finance information, geographical location and more. As we developed the larger Hofmeister Kink platform, we structured the data so that it could be activated against these records.

BUILDING THE KINK

To get people driving Kinks, we first needed to find the Kinks, catalogue them by model, match to owners, then lead those owners to their closest Kink. Powering all this is a woven patchwork of adjacent technologies.

DATA-TECH EVERYWHERE, ALL AT ONCE

From the synthetic training set we built to introduce mathematical variation (because if the machines are looking only for perfect matches, they’ll find nothing), the convolutional neural network (AI) we used for image analysis, the integration of the Mapbox API, the US road network TIGER/Line dataset, the third-party satellite imagery, through to its integration with BMW’s CRM systems, and eventual activation of the entire platform as a 1:1 experience for owners – data-tech is throughout.

INTEGRATED MEDIA PLAN AT A GLANCE

• Online experience at HofmeisterKink.com

• +2.5 million individualized emails

• Paid social media across Meta

• 90-second launch film on BMW USA’s YouTube

DRIVER ACTIVATION AND ENGAGEMENT

• +10.8 million miles of road analyzed.

• 42% email open rate, more than double the industry average.

• 1.2 million BMW owners engaged directly.

• 30.5% of engagers were owners who had not engaged in the past year.

• 337% increase in mentions of the Hofmeister Kink post-campaign.

• 100s of additional social mentions expressing intention to drive (or evidence of having driven) Hofmeister Kink-shaped roads.

WILD BUT TRUE, PEOPLE ACTUALLY DO CARE THIS MUCH

BMW is a brand that inspires deep devotion among enthusiasts around the world. They gather on message boards, at auto shows, in driving clubs and on roads – obsessing over every detail of every model, stretching back to the company’s founding in 1916. Our project seeks to show more casual owners and fans how our superfans see the brand, while rewarding the loyalists with a platform that celebrates the design legacy as much as they do.