BMW created safer winter driving

- It's really fun that BMW won! We managed to make Norwegian motorists more aware of safe winter driving! Yes, I would dare to say that we have saved lives," says Sindre Hellkås, Strategic Group Account Manager at Aller Media.

In 2022, Norwegian roads claimed 116 lives - 38 more fatalities than the previous year. As a major car player in the market, BMW took responsibility.

As the marketing manager at BMW says:

"If we can get one driver to be a little more consistent on winter roads, it's worth it. We have no lives to lose."

The goal was therefore first and foremost to raise awareness among Norwegians about safe driving in winter, and secondly to talk about how good BMWs are on winter roads. In the campaign, Aller Media's job was to get people to read, learn and use the information.

- Car advertising often focuses on pure branding of brand and model, or has campaigns on interest rates. Here we went in the complete opposite direction, with no focus on either brand or model. The campaign had to be relevant to everyone in traffic, not just BMW buyers," says Hellkås.

An incredible 350,000 chose to read an average of over 40 seconds on topics that are both heavy and serious. As many as 41% of readers became more aware of how to drive on winter roads.

Part of their success was that they used the news and timing to make the campaigns more relevant. A story about fresh snow when the first snow fell or a cottage story in the run-up to the weekend.

- "The fact that we managed to lock Kjetil Jansrud was also completely insane. He has been sponsored by a competitor throughout his alpine skiing career. We got him to join the BMW team, while he was also going to be in the media during the World Championships," says a satisfied Sindre Hellkås.