MEDIA-I: New media choice: BMW-films.com

Site www.bmwfilms.com

This is more than a just a website as BMW has cleverly disguised a

series of car advertisements.

The site features its own short films with leading directors such as Ang

Lee of the award-winning Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon hit and John

Frankenheimer of Ronin fame, and Guy Ritchie of Lock Stock and Two

Smoking Barrels.

There are also movie stars - the new Mrs Ritchie is one of them - and

great BMW cars.

In all, it's an online film festival, courtesy of BMW. The car-maker has

used streaming media on the web to create the site.

When you first visit, it might not appear a strong concept, but download

the BMW Film Player and watch some great short films and you get the

full experience of the site.

The site is well designed, features strong help, and has multiple

formats and viewing sizes. User registration and privacy are handled

well.

Branding is consistent with BMW, yet has a film festival feel. With the

new film notification feature there's good reason to opt in for email

updates.

BMW is building a vast, high quality database and extending the brand

and target audience reach.

Suggestions would be to promote the Film Player more aggressively as it

really makes the experience.

BMWFilms.com is a site I've told many people about.

Don't just advertise on television, or put BMW's in James Bond

movies.

Make your own movies and distribute them in your own channel.

It's the ultimate in marketing, branding and relationship building.

Look for the famous stars, interactive features, and how the films

relate.