Sassenbach, BMW’s agency for Mini, had a killer idea: “Adopt a storm! When it hits, it will be all over the news! Free advertising! It costs only €299! How can you lose?” This (or words to that effect) is what the agency told the client.” Then, more than 100 people froze to death.
Germany’s meteorology institute allows the sponsorship of weather systems. The agency paid the €299, called a cold front “Cooper” and boasted on its website that naming the front after the open-air vehicle was a “wind- and weather-proof idea”. Then, the cold front went berserk.
According to the BBC, a freak winter storm deep-froze most of Europe, and “the freezing temperatures have led to at least 100 deaths, mainly in Poland and Ukraine. In Ukraine alone, nearly 950 people are being treated in hospital with hypothermia and frostbite. ”
BMW said it deeply regretted that the weather front had taken on “catastrophic proportions” and claimed so many lives.
Sassenbach quickly removed the page from its website, but the killer storm turned into a PR disaster. Newspapers as far away as Australia report that “Mini has taken a step too far in its attempt to be cool.” We wager that coldhearted BMW will put its business with Sassenbach on ice.
This should be in marketing text books as one of the great instances of shitting the bed.
1st MB with communist thugs (Che), now BMW.
Is it something in the water or just born stupid?
Crocodile tears from BMW with their ‘regret’. It’s all Sassenbachs fault. They made us approve it. We didn’t want to, but they forced us to.
From someone who does marketing for a living, that concept is idiotic. The old saying that there’s no such thing as bad PR is a fallacy.
If Mercedes and BMW continue to highlight their own stupidity with their marketing campaigns, people might start to notice that the cars aren’t very clever either.
I’ve noticed that their stylists aren’t very clever, be it a mini-van or a super car they all have the same front ends.
And usually piloted by a douche bag who has said front end about one inch away from my rear bumper when driving behind me on the highway.
PR disaster is right. If BMW would put more focus on its technology and less on keeping up with Mercedes and Audi, we ALL would be a whole lot better. We are the largest independent repair facility in Oldham County KY. Remind me to fire our agency if they ever say “and publicity is good publicity”.
They were only following orders.
I don’t speak German but I’m pretty sure BMW are the initials for the pharase: Head Inserted Firmly in Butt.
Don’t really see how anyone could anticipate that.
That doesn’t surprise me one bit. It was a named weather front. BMW had nothing to benefit unless people talked about it. I don’t recall anyone ever mentioning the name of a nice gentle warm front that leads to sunny days and mild temperatures. Storms are destructive by nature. You’d need to be a real big thinker to believe there is an outcome where anyone mentions a named front that does no harm.
Whatever happened to “Ultimate” front?