BMW Australia creates a TV Commercial for the 3 Series

BMW Australia brings five generations of the iconic 3 Series sports sedan to life on the screen

The advertisement traces the history of the iconic 3 Series from its genesis as the BMW 2002 in 1968 to the latest E90 3 Series Sedan, with all cars filmed on a race track, and seamlessly morphing from one generation to the next.

In creating the advertisement, BMW and its creative partner, Melbourne based Badjar Group, mixed the latest in computer generated imagery with awesome on track driving, and a unique 360-degree action pan shot of the current and previous generation 3 Series cars.

“We created this television spot to show how the BMW 3 Series has always been fun to drive, is fun to drive today and will always be fun to drive. That’s what you’d expect from the cornerstone of the BMW brand,” says Tom Noble, General Manager, Marketing at BMW Group Australia.

Jack Room, executive creative director of BADJAR Group created a 45-second television spot that embodied the spirit of the BMW 3 Series. Armed with a vital knowledge base of the 3 Series history, the BADJAR creative team focused on the payoff line: “In 1968 BMW invented the sports sedan and never stopped re-inventing it”.

In the TVC, the cars morph through their generations to the climax, with the evocative music of the Body Rocker’s song “I Like The Way You Move” playing strongly. With the help of CGI – computer generated imaging – the BADJAR team spent two days on site at the Eastern Creek race track in Sydney filming and then worked their magic in the editing suite.

BADJAR had not done anything like the 3 Series creative for BMW previously. “We’ve done plenty of television commercials where we have used computer generated imaging, but not to this extent. The unique thing about this particular piece is that we wanted to have an archival feel to it to start with and then, as the whole thing progressed, end up with a much more contemporary feel, when the E46 3 Series morphed into the E90”, says Jack.

To enable that seamless transition, a special rig was built for the money shot, which involved mounting a camera for a 360-degree pan around both an E46 and E90 as one morphs into the other. After the shoot and with the genius of computers in the editing suite, the creatives took some footage of the spectacular mountains around Queenstown in New Zealand to slip into the background.