BMW Uses Social Network Sites and YouTube To Promote X1

The Facebook page is receiving a lot of traffic thanks to BMW recently posting an album with undisguised photos of the X1. At the moment, 81 people have "liked" the photos, and users have commented with things like "elegance personified" and "I want one dressed white" about the not-very-revealing pictures. The BMW X1 page was launched in April and has a perpetually growing 1,744-member fan base.

According to Automotive News, the average age of a BMW buyer is 48. BMW is looking to expand its target age demographic with the X1, and what better way to do this than promotion on social networks? The cost of advertising on these social Web sites is much lower than typical advertising, although Tony Douglas, innovations manager at BMW's Munich marketing department, says, with the social networking audience, "You don't buy it; you have to earn it. Content and timing has to be good, and you use a bit more brainpower. It is not the blind media spend."

Shawn Ticehurst, marketing communications manager of BMW North America, told Inside Line that "[we] are targeting a younger crowd with the X1, opening up a whole new gamut of buyers. The use of things like Twitter, Myspace and Facebook is [not only] a way to appeal to a younger buyer, but we also see them as media opportunities that are continually growing. [BMW] is getting into those medians while they are in a fairly young phase."

The German automaker released a hip trailer for the concept X1 on YouTube with a graffiti theme, then followed up with the video premiere of the uncovered concept in late September.

The X1 will be available in Europe this fall and won't make it to this side of the pond until mid-2011. Expect it in production form just in time for the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show in September.

Inside Line says: With the amount of time people spend on social networking sites, it is a perfect medium for marketing BMW's youth-targeted X1. — Mike Lysaght, Correspondent