BMW i3 partnered with The Telegraph and Wired magazine in order to educate and change opinions on electric cars

1. Executive Summary
This campaign had to demonstrate to opinion formers how the BMW I3 was a new generation of an electric car. We knew our audience needed convincing about electric cars, but they embraced technology and loved to read about it. We created a unique content partnership, taking the best of Wired magazine and supercharging it with the scale of a trusted newsbrand, The Telegraph. This enabled us to integrate our message within a dynamic content hub, curated by the best minds in tech, to deliver fresh relevant news to an audience who would become informed advocates for the I3 ahead of launch.
Background and objectives
•Objectives
Less than 1% of new car registrations in the UK are made up of electric vehicles. BMW wanted to change that with the launch of their first electric vehicle the i3 2013. To reach the target it would require a real step change in the perception of electric cars amongst a wider upmarket audience. It was imperative to drive understanding ASAP in the pre-launch phase.
We needed to dispel all of their misconceptions about weight, compromised performance and aesthetics; communicate that i3 is a new generation of electric car. No longer niche but mainstream option.
•Role for newsbrands
The key target audience was established as opinion formers, who like to find out first, and know more than other people.
Newsbrands were quickly identified as an ideal platform to reach such an informed but continually information seeking audience. Given a launch of this gravitas - BMW’s first electric car – this was news in itself, so environmentally to be in the company of other news stories made sense. We needed not just to reach but educate, to overcome misconceptions about the car that come from earlier non BMW electric vehicles, a content rich partnership was required.
With this audience so influential within their own network, this education of the educators in the pre-launch phase would ultimately lead to a wider understanding by the time of launch.
Insight and strategy
•Insights and observations
Using CCS (Aegis bespoke research tool), we identified the importance this audience placed on knowledge
- 75% Considered themselves knowledgeable and feel that knowledge is power
- They enjoy educating other people, 88% agree the information they take on must come from trusted sources
- 78% agree owning and understanding new technology was very important so we identified this as an area relevant to our I3 product
Insight informing the strategy
To offer our audience what they love most, knowledge, and on a subject that was both a key area of interest for them but also had great affinity for the i3 – technology. We needed to ensure that this technology knowledge came from a trusted source.
Wired is arguably the most credible and quality UK tech brand; however it wasn’t our go to place. We needed a newsbrand platform to deliver our i3 news story, as well as its information hungry audience and scale. The Telegraph.co.uk is the largest quality UK news site. By partnering the two brands together they could compliment one another’s strengths.
We took content from Wired and seeded it onto a Telegraph platform to achieve scale – not to dissimilar to the i3’s own strategy to take a niche car and take it out to the masses.

2. The plan
Our bespoke hub was designed to make it easy for our audience to discover the latest trending topics in the world of technology and form an opinion on what they read. Therefore, success hinged on the content’s credibility and freshness. Key to this was assembling the Tech Trend Team, who would be responsible for curating, commissioning and commenting on the content. The team was led by 4 industry figures:
Matt Warman, Telegraph Consumer Technology Editor
Hunter Skipworth, Digital Spy’s Technology Editor
Dan Smith, Wired Journalist
Dr Peter Cochrane, Technology / Innovation Entrepreneur and Investor
The content featured had to be new news. Built into the hub was a carousel of hot trending topics across Wired and Telegraph technology that updated in real time. Of primary inclusion was the big news story in tech – that the new generation of electric cars was to be launched and that it had none of the compromises expected – it was a car for everyone.
To ensure the scale required, we guaranteed 50k U/U engagements to the hub.
All content drove to test drive sign ups, with an incentive to win a technology themed weekend in London - chauffeured in a BMW.
•Making the most of newsbrands
The Telegraph was the central partner and facilitator to this plan; building the hub, managing the content, and giving our story the relevant platform and scale required. We also utilised its print edition, the highest quality daily - for additional content and traffic drivers.
This solution worked alone to take on the huge task of delivering understanding of the car and its differentiation to all other models in this market, in the early pre-launch phase. This then meant that at launch the car could be announced more simply with a high impact display campaign across TV, Print, Outdoor, Digital, which included news brand coverwraps and HPTO’s.
Results
 Target reach exceeded by 100% - delivering 100k UU’s; achieving nearly 9000 visits pw
 Interest driven, with search for ‘BMWi3’ and ‘BMW Electric Car’ up 400% at the peak of the campaign period
 150% uplift in conversation around the i3 during the June-August campaign period (Sysomos) - 65% of these came from UGC on Twitter / Facebook (up from 45% prior), demonstrating our audience were passing on the message
 Engagement achieved, with each visitor spending 1.5 minutes on average on the landing page alone
 Over 20,000 data capture was driven with via competition entries as well as 400 test drive requests
 The partnership even became a news story in its own right, generating its own PR (examples below)
http://www.inpublishing.co.uk/news/articles/telegraph_teams_up_with_wired_to_promote_bmw.aspx
http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/article/1185733/telegraph-partners-wired-bmw-content-deal
 This partnership and supporting print activity was the only above the line activity running until the global launch event, so the positive results we’ve seen are directly connected to this activity
• Newsbrand Learnings

3. Newsbrands brought a wealth of content experience and editorial expertise to this partnership, as well as the technical knowhow to deliver a rich, engaging consumer experience. This solution was a great example of how Newsbrands are more than willing to work with other media partners fully appreciating when this is necessary to deliver the perfect solution. The strength of Newsbrands’ digital platforms was truly demonstrated in the scale and level of impact this partnership had. It really got our audience talking about the BMW I3.
Client view
‘’This campaign delivered on our strategy of bringing something previously thought to be niche and ‘not for me’ into the mainstream consciousness, driving awareness and understanding. Positioning the BMW i3 in these environments emphasised the premium nature of the car and gave space to highlight the cutting edge technology built into the car. The campaign has delivered strong results against our target audience and built a strong foundation for future communications’’
Laura Stead – Launch & Brand Manager, Marketing Communications
IMAGE (THE HUB PAGE)