Ideas We Love: The BMW iJack ⚡🔌🔋
Issue Number 13: BMW hijacks Google Maps to swarm EV charger search listings in Dubai
At Ideas We Love HQ 💕 we love ideas of all shapes, sizes and budgets; we’re not particularly fussy.
However every now and again, some ideas come along that may have small budgets, but possess a big dollop of savvy that make us smile and think “s*** we wish we’d thought of that”.
This issue is dedicated to one of those created out of Serviceplan Dubai, for BMW.
Reportedly only requiring three BMWs and a smartphone to produce - less than what’s required to get your average rostered creative agency to a client meeting.
The idea: The BMW iJack
In the UAE, where oil is cheap and plentiful, electric vehicle purchases and penetration are slowly on the rise.
However, the residential charging network in the region is still pretty nascent; meaning most people rely on public charging stations to power-up their cars.
As a result of this, one of the first things ‘EV curious’ people in the UAE do when thinking about buying one is to Google their nearest charging points to check whether it would be a practical investment.
Cognisant of this, BMW, a recent entrant to the EV market in the region took three vehicles from one of their dealers on a little road-trip round Dubai; photographing them in-situ at over 300 charging stations before uploading reviews of those charging stations to their respective Google Maps location.
But why bother going to all that….bother?
Well this guerrilla tactic ensured that every time either potential EV buyers or current EV owners searched for their nearest charging station - they were served with images of brand-spanking new BMWs getting charging.
Just like below.
Ooooft. That’s lovely.
Not content with mere exposure, the agency also uploaded 360-degree views of the cars’ interiors and integrated QR codes into the listings, which people could scan to request a BMW test drive.
Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of this idea.
So far, the brand claims their cars have been seen over 2 million times on Google Maps, spiking test-drive bookings by 400%—40% of which originated from the campaign—and generating a claimed $2.2 million in earned media after catching the eye of the major motoring channel, Arab GT, and its vast social media audience.
Check out the case-film here.
Why we love this idea
It’s an existing BMW idea, upcycled ♻️
This isn’t the first time BMW have hacked locational listings online.
Back in 2020, having found a link between home buying and car buying, FCB Toronto cunningly worked with real estate agents to put their EVs into up-market sales and rental listings across the city.
Fast-forward to 2024, this UAE activation isn’t too proud to work with a gem of an existing idea, but upcycle it to get even closer to the point of pre-purchase research, or post-purchase evaluation of charging options.
No idea is a new idea after all.
Context, context, context 🎯
A theme is starting to emerge amongst many of the Ideas We Love 💕 we’ve featured so far; where creativity is used to unlock disproportionate attention, associations and subsequent actions in contexts of outsized importance that sit previously untapped.
This highjack is a stellar example.
Serviceplan didn’t just think of the conventional ‘buying signals’ along the EV customer journey that are addressable with off-the-shelf media placements… they went deeper and thought about which other mindsets, moments, modes and messengers of scale and significance that BMW could tap into.
Range anxiety. Charging Networks. Google Map’s UX. Ratings & Reviews. All would need consideration and crafting into a plan of action that would ensure BMWs show-up every time someone’s researching charging points across Dubai.
Which as a late entrant into an increasingly over-supplied EV market, helps BMW benefit from the next reason why we love this idea so much.
The power of social proofing 💪
Social proofing, or more simply the sense that others are doing something, or thinking something, is a force that’s so strong it can even work in the absence of people actually doing it.
Just ask teenagers of a certain age.
Much like this idea…which by jamming up the feed of charging network reviews listed on Google Maps, created the sense that everyone in town has the new BMW EV.
An idea that makes the car both more visible and with it more appealing at the same time.
No Budget, no problem 🤓
There’s no doubt that some serious technical and logistical jiggery pokery was required, but no media $$$ were needed to get this activation off the ground and to start gaining traction in the region.
No stars required paying.
No shoots required attending.
No rights required licensing.
Just a healthy drop of curiosity, mixed with some search-driven savvy, that saw BMW spike test-drives of their EV range by 400%.
What we’d love to have done with it
The point of this section is to suggest things we’d like to do free from the shackles of budgets and approvals, but in the spirit of this idea we’ll stay restrained.
So let’s get our overalls on.
#1 AirBNC 🏠 🔌🔋
The first thought that sprung to mind was what other things might EV intenders or owners be searching for that you could stretch this idea further into.
This activation saw BMW hijack charging networks in public spaces. Done.
The OG Canada activation saw them hijack charging bays in private spaces. Done.
However both activations are very local and therefore have a ceiling on how many people they can influence in the real world.
Therefore what about taking this thought internationally by partnering with the owners of EV friendly AirBNBs to either physically, or virtually place their EVs directly into listings with charging docks.
Like this lovely little 4 bedder in Malibu where guests can charge their EVs on the property.
You might call the activation AirBNC (I’ll get my coat), but the benefit of an AirBNB over hi-jacking local listing means any integrations will connect with browsers and bookers from all over the world.
But staying with that thought, you could even stretch what in essence is a tactical, visual -led placement akin to the iJack, to offer-up BMW powered weekends (to promote the range), in remote locations (to combat range anxiety), that offer up guests the opportunity to live the best of what an EV lifestyle has to offer (associate with ‘peak’ emotions / memories) for their weekend stay - to truly try before they buy.
#2 Hi-jacking parts of people’s media repertoires that search can’t reach 📺
The next thought that came to mind was how we might scale the effect of social proofing from one that’s encountered solely within Google Maps, to some other places and spaces that are potentially more prominent.
One way you might go about doing this is by using an emerging media technique, that takes the discipline of product placement we’ve seen in movies and TV series for decades, from one that is organised pre-shoot, to something that can now be served up programmatically within the program.
Put the BMW either charging up, or charging along the motorway into prominent scenes to scale that social proofing effect we talked to earlier.
Either within the programming, or potentially using the same tech within the ad-break, to make every ad, a BMW ad, by highjacking (with a friendly handshake between the brands and agencies of course) other brands advertising; the combination of which can help BMWs EVs feel even more popular than logic would suggest otherwise.
#3 Re-imagining test-drives 🚘
The evidence to suggest this idea was a success was the 400% increase in test-drive bookings.
This got us thinking about how we might re-imagine how test-drives are served-up in order to get more of the right kinds of people behind the wheel, in moments of heightened receptivity.
The AirBNC extension may be one way of doing this.
The classic “last idea in the creative idea deck” option would be to list the new EVs as either a ‘Green & Clean’ or as a ‘Lux’ option on Uber that are made available to riders in zones, districts, hangouts or destinations of strategic significance.
Take a ride in the back, or take the wheel in the front - up to you.
The savvier/newsworthy option might be to think about how you might integrate the opportunity to test-drive, or even drive away the car in moments of heightened receptivity.
Why not put the car on the wine-list, or on the menu in a modern, luxury restaurant?
Restaurants where people seem happy enough to pay Salt Bae a stupid amount of money for some social media flex, could feasibly splurge a similar amount on something they might drive away afterwards.
£65K for a bottle of red or a new runabout?
Taste a different kind of ‘donut’ as a dessert?
A bit of lateral thinking, that might lift the magic of a test-drive out of the dealer and into other parts of any strategic target audience’s lives.
If you liked this, you’ll love…..
We really enjoyed this one and here’s some other ads and activations it reminded us, or made us think of again.
The OG “creative use of search” by Snickers with “you can’t spell when you’re hungry”
That was the first example we can remember, which used search in a novel way to flex an ATL idea
A previous Google Map hack we highlighted by YETI who’ve started to ‘Map the Gaps’ x-Google Maps
From Ideas We Love 💕 Issue # 2
SKODA’s creation of a new in-car media channel, with their ‘Dashboard Billboards’
That sought to use drivers reverse cams, in car parks, to make their case for SKODAs.
Until next time
If this kind of thing is your thing, we both write regularly on other stuff too. Tom’s blog can be found here and Matt can be found building out “The A to Z of Media Planning” here.
As always - we’d love to know what you think!
Cheerio
Matt & Tom