BMW has joined Ford in creating media events that attempt to deliver messages that go past a product launch and apprehend the fading communique power of traditional automobile suggests.
On June 25, BMW collected over 400 people — media, influencers, and monetary analysts — in its BMW Welt logo experience center in Munich to unveil many new products and replace its electrification, independent-using, and linked-car programs.
The occasion, called NextGen, is similar in format to Ford’s Go Further, a communique method that the U.S. Automaker’s European department commenced in Amsterdam in September 2012 to unveil the new Mondeo midsize sedan.
Since then, Ford has skipped numerous key European auto shows, replicating Go Further activities in Barcelona in November 2013 to unveil the brand new Mustang sports activities vehicle. In Cologne in November 2016 to unveil the brand new Fiesta small automobile and this past April, once more in Amsterdam, to unveil the new Kuga small SUV, preview the new Puma small SUV and provide an update on electrification.
BMW’s chief technical officer, Klaus Froelich, said NextGen is a “better layout than motor indicates, extra extreme, greater communicate.”
During NextGen, BMW, for the first time, showed six fashions; the eight collection Gran Coupe, M8 coupe and M8 Cabrio, the brand new 1 series five-door hatch, the three series Touring wagon, and revamped X1 compact SUV. But this kind of debut was overshadowed through every other animal now not previewed earlier than.
The Vision M Next idea is a glimpse of destiny M’s top fashions, combining overall performance — 600 hp — with a plug-in hybrid powertrain permitting as much as one hundred km of 0-emission riding.
The head of income and advertising for the BMW emblem, Peter Nota, turned into now not especially concerned that the Vision M Next could have overshadowed other model debuts: “What is crucial is that the sector talks of BMW,” he instructed me.
At the Munich event, I ran into Arndt Ellinghorst, a financial analyst at Evercore ISI in London, who said that he became inspired using the dimensions of NextGen and that he sees how those sorts of events will update vehicle suggests over the years, supplying benefits at content, exclusivity, and price.
BMW said it has now not determined the frequency of its NextGen events — Ford recently has switched to a 3-12 months cadence for its Go Furthers — however, it does now not recollect this being a one-off.
My take? Mixed.
Events like this permit a deep dive into an automaker’s approach that is going well beyond product launch. These activities also truly show that a few automakers want to construct their own communique silos in which they play their own track, without any external distraction.
While I completely apprehend this view from the automaker’s side, I think the function of the traditional vehicle indicates should no longer be downplayed.
Even if suffering, conventional indicates stay the proper location to look and speak with automakers and generate a broader and more numerous view of the complete picture. And this is what virtually matters to me.
