The Objective
Partners since its inception in 2014, BMW and Formula E — the world’s biggest electric racing championship — have enjoyed huge success together with their groundbreaking, emission-free race series. But until Season 5 in 2019, BMW had yet to compete on the track with a car of their own.
To promote their strengthening role at the forefront of e-racing, and the release of their innovative new electric race car — the BMW iFE.20 — to a young German audience, BMW Motorsport looked to TikTok for help in reaching the hearts and minds of Gen Z and Millennials across the country.
The Solution
If there’s one thing that everyone involved in racing has in common, it’s the love of celebrating. As they entered a new racing season with their latest e-car, BMW Motorsport called on the TikTok community to share their passion for celebration by showing the world how they honour big moments through a fun and engaging Branded Hashtag Challenge — #icelebrate.
Supported by a slick, 5s TopView Lite video ad to announce the challenge, BMW Motorsport’s campaign utilised TikTok’s most popular format to create a viral brand movement that proved irresistible to users across Germany. And by working with some of the country’s most popular Creators to kick off the challenge, including Falco Punch, PATROX, and Sky & Tami, the campaign gained a real sense of authenticity, boosting user participation even further. The official Formula E song "Stand Together" soundtracked the videos, adding to the immersive feel of the branded challenge.
From acrobatic dance performances to mock podium celebrations, the videos produced for the Hashtag Challenge proved just how creative TikTok’s community is, and further reinforced the platform’s place as the leading destination for fun and joyful short-form mobile videos.
An In-Feed Ad supported the Hashtag Challenge, serving up an emotive branded video alongside other content from across the TikTok community on users’For You feeds as they explored their personal feeds.
The video itself consisted of a 10s clip highlighting the moments of joy that come with celebrating success on the race track, and was also soundtracked by "Stand Together," which added to the impact of the ad and reinforced the brand’s presence.
Thanks to a banner on the Discover Page, and a call to action directing users to the Challenge Page, providing further information about the campaign, users were presented with a clear route to participate, which secured excellent engagement for the challenge as well as valuable brand exposure with BMW Motorsport’s target audience.
The Results
Lasting for six days between October 14 –October 19, 2019, the BMW Motorsport Branded Hashtag Challenge was a resounding success, yielding some remarkable engagement for the brand amongst its target audience.
Close to 3,000 videos were created during the campaign, with an incredible 15.6 million video views recorded. Alongside the content, well over 1.48 million associated interactions were generated (likes, comments, and shares), clearly showing how impactful a Hashtag Challenge can be when the call to action is clear and its launch is supported by popular Creators.
The accompanying In-Feed Ad comfortably achieved its benchmark for click-throughs and successfully guided thousands of potential participants to the "challenge page," while the Brand Takeover saw almost 6 million impressions alone, far outperforming its target click-through rate to further support the challenge.
BMW Motorsport also gained more than 18,000 new followers in just six days thanks to the challenge, laying the foundations for excellent TikTok user engagement in the future.
This inspiring and entertaining campaign found the perfect home on TikTok, proving the platform’s ability to provide brands with a fun, creative method of engaging with their target audiences. Helping generate remarkable levels of targeted Gen Z and Millennial exposure for both their brand and their new e-racing car, this Hashtag Challenge perfectly demonstrated TikTok’s ability to help brands create joyful and authentic experiences with our millions of users.
