BMW is one of the world’s premier automobile brands. The German company’s cars are well-known for their performance, sporty style and luxury. BMW’s advertisements, whether print or broadcast, stay at the height of current fashions to appeal to its audience of wealthy, trendy customers.

With the advent of Internet advertising, BMW wanted to make a name for itself as a company that not only was on the cutting-edge of car design and engineering, but just on the cutting-edge, period. BMW hired several big-name, award-winning Hollywood film producers, along with top-name actors, to produce a series of film shorts that would be broadcast via Internet streaming media at a site created special for the campaign, www.bmwfilms.com.

The series, called “The Hire,” consisted of four short films, each lasting between six and eight minutes. BMW allowed the filmmakers wide latitude in what they created, so long as the cars were prominently featured. BMW then launched a separate, offline marketing campaign that included several network television advertisements, all promoting the BMW Films site. While BMW has not disclosed how much money it spent on the BMW Films campaign, marketing experts assume that the campaign was fairly expensive.

Jim McDowell, BMW’s vice president of marketing, said in a press interview near the time the films came out (in May 2001) that if 1 million viewers logged on to watch the films the campaign would be a “home run.” By June, the company had recorded that more than 3 million visitors had watched at least one film. And though the company could not establish a direct link between car sales and the BMW Films campaign, BMW did have its best May and June ever in terms of car sales, exceeding 40,000 vehicles, all amid a souring economy.