BMW Films: The Hire
BMW2001
BMW Films: The Hire is a 2001 series of eight internet short films for BMW, created by Fallon, Minneapolis.
The line
bmwfilms.com
Why it works
The campaign that invented branded entertainment as a discipline. In 2001 — before YouTube existed — BMW and Fallon hired A-list film directors to make eight genuine short films starring Clive Owen as a mysterious Driver, and released them only on the internet, betting that BMW's early-adopter customers would download them. They did, in the millions. The series won the first-ever Titanium Lion at Cannes (a category created partly because nobody knew what to call this) and was inducted into MoMA's permanent collection in 2003. It is studied as the founding text for every piece of branded content since: entertainment first, product embedded in the action, distribution by pull rather than interruption.
Techniques
- Storytelling Eight genuine short films by leading directors follow a mysterious Driver, putting entertainment first and distributing it by pull rather than interruption.
- Demonstration The cars are embedded in the action rather than pitched, so each drama shows what they can do on the road.
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