More and more people are considering going electric with their next car purchase. Whilst some people might not be ready to make the leap to full electric, BMW offers a range of Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) cars, which combine a combustion petrol engine and an electric motor to offer the driver the benefit of both petrol and electric.
BMW Plug-in Hybrids (PHEV) are available on many of existing models in the range, from a saloon to an SUV. A PHEV is every inch a BMW, so they look, feel and drive exactly as you would expect the ultimate driving machine to.
This ground-breaking range of cars needed a show-stopping campaign. Creative agency FCB Inferno was briefed to create a campaign that clearly communicated how PHEVs offer the performance of petrol, with the efficiency of electric, in one BMW.
The campaign idea is strikingly simple. In the films, each time a BMW PHEV switches from petrol to electric, it glows with pure white light. When it changes back to petrol, the light disappears. In other words, the car is ‘Sometimes electric. Always BMW.’
Achieving this effect in a way that felt realistic was much harder than it looked, and the BMW PHEV shoot included a lot of firsts. A pioneering LED lighting rig was custom built specifically for the campaign, to give a real illumination effect rather than relying on special effects. An anamorphic camera normally used for IMAX movies gave a more cinematic feel. Add in flying drone shots through a working city, and a cameraman on rollerblades who used to skate at the X Games, and you get a sense of the level of craft that went into creating the campaign.
The result is an elegant visual metaphor that brings to life the Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) range’s hidden yet innovative functionality. The film forms the first part of a wider programme that will be running throughout the year with the aim of helping consumers understand better the PHEV technology and the positive realities of living with it every day.
Advertising Agency: FCB Inferno, London, UK
Chief Creative Officer: Owen Lee
Senior Creative: Ben Usher
Senior Creative: Rob Farren
Strategy Partner: David Napier
Director of Production: Nikki Chapman
Producer: Charlie Coombes
Managing Partner: Katy Wright
Business Director: Helena Georghiou
Account Director: Rob Stockton
Production Company: Iconoclast Films
Director: Rob Chiu
Executive Producer: Tom Knight
Producer: Mikey Levelle
Offline Edit House: Cut & Run
Editor: James Rose
Post Production: The Mill
Sound: Wave Studios
Engineer: Martin Leitner
Media Agency (UK): Wavemaker
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