• April 29, 2008

BMW is launching an ad effort via Austin, Texas-based GSD&M Idea City, and Dutch ad firm viZoo for its new BMW X6 crossover vehicle. The campaign includes an outdoor component comprising an interactive hologram of the vehicle in an exhibit in New York's financial district.

The car will appear in a 10-foot-square, BMW-branded booth in which consumers can manipulate a touch-screen interface to shift the hologram so it offers various interior and exterior views.

The BMW X6 virtual tours will be open in each New York City location Monday through Friday during regular office hours, and will be staffed by brand ambassadors during peak times.

Also, on CNBC-TV, the X6 will appear to drive across the top of the screen as part of a reverse stock ticker, and the company will sponsor CNBC-TV's "Power Lunch" taping at The Four Seasons Restaurant in New York City.

Bimmer is also doing a Left-coast deal with Variety, pitching the car to industry via sponsorship of the "10 to Watch" series, "10 Innovators to Watch," in both print and online editions dated May 5th. Both BMW and Variety will sponsor the Consumer Electronics Association's Digital Hollywood Conference in Los Angeles May 5-8. BMW will put the X6 in front of the conference venue and, along with Variety, will host a "10 Innovators to Watch" panel discussion followed by a cocktail party.

Print and outdoor ads for the vehicle are running through June in books like Forbes, The Economist, Conde Nast Portfolio, Robb Report, The New Yorker, Cigar Aficionado, Automobile, and Road and Track.

The TV ad shows a lump of clay morphing between a variety of vehicle shapes before settling on the X6 profile. Media buy: national cable television networks such as Bloomberg, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, ESPN, NFL Draft on NFL Network, The Golf Channel, NBA Playoffs on TNT, and the Speed Channel.

--Karl Greenberg