BMW Shows ‘The Road Home’ for the Holidays [VIDEO]

BMW North America has released “The Road Home” just in time for the holidays.

The agency that produced “The Road Home,” Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners, asked staff “to grab video as they headed home for the Thanksgiving holiday. Staffers used phones and video cameras to record telling details and vistas from their journeys: dogs jumping into cars, roller bags rolling, scenery flowing by,” according to Susan Kuchinskas of ClickZ.

What resulted from the effort is a 1 minute, 46 second video that is emotional and relatable.

So far, the video, which posted Dec. 13 on YouTube, has more 500,000 hits. A 60-second version is in rotation on television as well. Trudy Hardy, department head, marketing communications and consumer events from BMW of North America says, “Great [creativity] trumps all. It’s the quality of that which will determine the engagement and emotional reaction of the piece.”

BMW is following in the footsteps of Expedia, which has so far put out two emotional videos that attempt to resonate with people. Without any words, BMW is communicating a familiar experience during the holidays — returning home to family and loved ones.

At first the company wanted to go with a funnier theme, but decided that emotional would be better during the holidays.

“The goal with corporate-brand storytelling is to transition the consumer from awareness to trial to advocacy,” says Melinda Partin in an article for Fast Company. “You want people to use your brand to describe their life: A ‘Windows User,’ a ‘Mac Guy,’ a ‘Honda driver’ and so on. Once the consumer adopts a product into his or her personal story, brand exposure increases greatly.”