Car manufacturers have optimized their websites for mobile use, but many still feel slow and complex. To reflect the cars that it produces, BMW designed and developed BMW.com as an all-new dynamic global content hub.
Objective and Context:
BMW knew that the best way to reach out to potential car lovers was to listen to their needs and tell them stories that they actually wanted to hear — data-driven, relevant, and entertaining. To serve this purpose, BMW developed a new home for its brand: the all-new BMW.com.
BMW’s goal was to get in touch with potential consumers through its digital content hub, and to obtain a high Google ranking for the content on BMW.com. It also aimed to improve the website’s click-through rate and retention time.
Target Audience:
As one of the largest automotive players in the world, BMW is not short of satisfied customers. Despite its popularity, it wanted to resonate with more consumers and excite those who aren’t interested in cars.
Creative Strategy:
The new BMW.com was BMW’s first content hub. Its old website only presented the cars that BMW produces, whereas this website leveraged the importance of national markets where consumers can configure a car and arrange test drives.
Overall Campaign Execution:
BMW was able to engage consumers who weren’t interested in BMW or cars in general by delivering content that people were searching for on Google. The first step of its sales funnel was showing consumers what BMW stands for and convincing them of its values concerning mobility. By reading stories about expeditions to Antarctica or the “Road trip to Happiness” consumers were able to get in touch with BMW’s products, and could explore further on the national BMW website where they could arrange a test drive or configure their first BMW.
BMW stood behind the concept that there is no value in super-fancy content if it takes ages to load on a mobile device: “No performance, no fun.” BMW adopted a technical strategy that made both cool creative content and performance possible. Google’s innovative Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) technology transformed the new home of the BMW brand into the fastest automotive website in the world — loading three times faster than before, or in less than two seconds.
Mobile Execution:
In close collaboration with user experience specialists, designers, and editors, BMW aimed to create the best mobile user experience on the new BMW.com by using a combination of Google AMP and PWA technology (Progressive Web App). Google search ranks AMP pages higher than others, which supported BMW’s SEO-driven content strategy. The use of Progressive Web App ensured intuitive website operation, reflecting native apps. Swiping, scrolling, and tapping with only one finger enabled comfortable navigation through many articles that were teased with fast-loading videos.
Results included:
