BMW India is promoting the new ULTIMAT3 on social media channels i.e. Facebook and Twitter via various engaging contests.
Last week we had seen how Renault India was using Facebook to promote its new car ‘Duster’ and this week we have BMW India. BMW India has clearly mentioned that the page is all about fans and bringing joy to them on Facebook.
To continue doing this, BMW India has launched a number of interesting campaigns on Facebook to promote the new ‘ULTIMAT 3’. The page that has a strong community of more than 831K fans is running ‘All About ULTIMAT3′ contest for its fans. Previously the page had two more interesting contests – ‘The Ultimat 3 Challenge’ and ‘BMW X1 Art Expressions’.
All About the ULTIMAT3 Facebook app
BMW India has created a Facebook app to make it more interesting. The contest is exclusive for its fans so you will have to like the page to continue further. Once the authentication of the app is done, the brand asks you a set of 5 questions. After answering the questions, you need to provide personal details such as telephone number along with name, email id, the car being used presently, etc. Now if your answers are correct then you could be the lucky one to be invited at the event launch of the car.
The app that has been implemented for this contest is a simple one and has nothing much to do. However, the app has been tested well and abides to the Facebook guidelines.
Is the contest cool?
The contest is simple but has confusions. The contest has been designed to ask fans a set of 5 questions daily. Nothing wrong in it since the questions are related to the new Ultimat3 but how does one answer the questions. Neither the app gives a link nor I have seen any updates on the wall that help you to answer the question. It would have been helpful if the app tells you that the answer lies in the microsite and one needs to find it there.
Additionally, the contest is collecting email id’s and phone numbers. Why does the brand need to collect the phone numbers if it has the email id to inform winners? Renault India had done the same even though there is no rational sense to do so.
QR code confusion?
The brand has used QR codes and the cover page that is being used right now has a QR code that takes you to the microsite of Ultimat3. (I don’t understand why do you need a QR code since the job of the QR code is to connect the offline to the online world). The mobile microsite has details of ‘All about Ultimat3’ contest and answers to most of the questions on the site itself. But the app fails to divert to the right page on Facebook when I want to participate in the contest from mobile.
Yesterday’s TOI also carried a half page ad about Ultimat3 which had the same QR code and lands to the same mobile site. The problem of the mobile site remains the same. This is another example when apps are not tested properly.
Thoughts on the Facebook campaign
The page has seen a lot of activity and the fan count has grown immensely in the last month. The page has added more than 66,000 fans and the below screen grab from Unmetric shows the people talking to the brand is also increasing from the month of July.
Additionally, the brand had run two contests previously – ‘The Ultimate3 Challenge’ was a challenge that asked questions regarding the various generations of BMW and the clues were hidden in the timeline. A smart contest but not innovative since Vespa India had done the same some time back during its launch on Facebook.
The second contest ‘BMW X1 Art Expressions’ asked fans to show their creative side and for me it was the most creative and engaging contest by the brand. Fans had to show their art on the BMW model which the below screen grab explains better.
The content on the page is useful and talks about the various features of the new car that has 4 days for the launch. Along with Facebook, the brand has a fresh presence on Twitter but it would be too early to comment on the activities.
The BMW India page has some impressive things and it has kept fans glued to contests on the page. However the recent contest leaves me confused, what about you?