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March 25, 2006
BMW's Free Audiobook Program
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BMW
Audiobooks presents these four audiobooks free to Internet listeners. |
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BMW broke new ground in marketing territory with their commission for the eight film series of The Hire, starring Clive Owen as a mercenary driver – in a BMW – way back in 2001.
The third installment of the series premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to international acclaim and the films received more than 100 million page views during their run that was ended in 2005.
What was revolutionary five years ago – melding branding and the arts into a new form – has become almost commonplace for automakers today, with a wide palette of web films, animation, games and contests being offered by nearly every major company.
Rather than cede the high mark established by The Hire, BMW has continued to sponsor unique “art marketing” projects on the Internet in ways that combine their brand and vehicles with authentic artistic creations.
One such project is the recent Z4 by JD endeavor, where the company invited New York graphic artist Joshua Davis to create a series of his computer drawings based on his interaction with the automobile. Besides bringing this avant-garde art to masses via an intricate website and such extras as online print galleries and wallpapers, they’re also making the complex prints available for $280.
In a similar vein to The Hire is the company’s limited run production, BMW Audiobooks, where four authors were commissioned to write noirish stories that have been made available for free download. BMW collaborated with Random House on the project, offering only one caveat to each of the writers – they had to incorporate a BMW vehicle into the fabric of the tale.
Following the initial announcement, the stories were released every two weeks. If you signed on early, e-mail notifications were sent to trumpet the latest story. With all four stories now published, they’re all available as MP3 audio downloads in a single visit.
Each story, less than an hour long, offered a compelling tale with a BMW vehicle featured as one of the supporting cast:
-- In Beautiful Ride, by Don Winslow, a Z4 convertible is the only thing separating former high flyer Ted from living in the streets, and the vehicle figures prominently in getting his money, and some satisfaction, back from his double-crossing boss and former wife.
-- Master of the Storm is a well-crafted ghost story by James Flint where the main character, gets to redeem his mistake of injuring a woman in a hit-and-run accident with his BMW 1 Series.
-- In The Debt, by Simon Kernick, a former boxer is made to make good on his cousin’s debt by relinquishing the keys to his beloved 7 Series, which doesn’t sit well with him at all – and this tale ends with a nice twist of justice in the very last words.
-- Cold Cold Heart by Karin Slaughter is a story of revenge by a spurned ex-wife who executes the unkindest cut of all on her dying ex-husband – and delivers the relish at the end in a BMW X3 SUV.
Originally published at AIADA.
Posted by Frank at March 25, 2006 9:28 PM | Filed under 5th Wheel
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