Audi BMW

3D is in these days and more and more movies or video commercials are jumping on this bandwagon, so it came as no surprise to us when a BMW’s Joy campaign showed up in a 3D Projection. The video message is featured on a commercial complex in the suburb of Singapore.

It is unclear at the moment if this is a BMW sanctioned marketing gig or simply an ad agency taking it a step further. Looking at the faces of the people in this video, the 3D effect appears to be quite credible and real, and thanks to the incorporated shadow, an very impressive spectacle emerged.

The video plays well with the 3D effects, which also includes a small tribute to the birthday boy Pacman, as well as classic BMW billboards. The buzzwords “Joy is BMW” and of course “EfficientDynamics” are present as well, one of BMW’s trademark signatures in the past year.

So whether we embrace it or not, the “Joy” continues and it is being driven not only by the impressive BMW engineering, but also by video technology.

Jack Pitney, Vice President of Marketing at BMW North America, met with journalists at an event in Birmingham, Michigan.

Topic of discussion? BMW’s “Secret Sauce” and company’s plans to start emphasizing their independence. “Joy of Driving” and “The Ultimate Driving Machine” were some of the subjects discussed as well.

Last but not least, Pitney also adventured into a discussion about the upcoming Megacity electric vehicle due to arrive by 2014. As we confirmed before, the car will still wear a BMW roundel.

FWD? Another hot topic, and before we let you jump into the video, allow us to leave you one of his quotes:

“In the end, what BMW needs to do is make sure our cars are a hoot to drive. And we will interpret that different than MINI. Because we aren’t MINI. Do we think there’s an opportunity for a front-wheel-drive vehicle? Absolutely.”

Thanks for the tip Misha!

We’re happy to see the responses start to roll in from readers on their personal cars and great photos they’ve come across on the web. This week we have a personal contribution from our reader Sheldon with his own 1988 325iS which has a handful of mods such as 16 inch BBS alloys, a revised suspension and, in this picture, a nice prep for a wedding carriage duty!

Reader Mounir sent us a handful of pictures he came across – my favorites being the BMW M1 grabbing air at the Nurburgring and a heavily modified, diesel powered X3 also catching quite a bit of air as it looks like it is being run for a serious off-roading event!

We hope all of our readers continue to enjoy the BMWBLOG Joy feature and that those of you interested continue to contribute pictures that demonstrate the essence of a BMW to you! What moves you about BMW’s in photos?

BMW M1: AusMotive via Dedicated reader Mounir

BMW X3: BMW Heaven via Dedicated reader Mounir

BMW 325iS: Dedicated reader Sheldon

BMW 3’s at Monticello: Bulgogi Brothers

BMW M6: From PKB Visions via Flickr

Last week, we launched our own version of the Joy campaign, the highly controversial marketing gimmick that has stirred up strong feelings among the BMW fans.

Our campaign is far from being categorized as marketing, the scope here is to create a weekly routing where all of you can send photos in of what bimmers that you believe gives you that pleasure of driving, the excitement we all feel behind the wheel of a BMW.

As we pointed out last week, this campaign is all about evoking emotion and showing that connection between the brand and its community.

In our own way, we would like to present to our readers a miniature Joy campaign of simple pictures that demonstrate the the joy and emotion that can be derived from the ownership or even just the application of Bimmers at what they do best: sporty driving.

We will be running these pictures every Friday to get all of our collective blood running for the weekends where, across the planet, BMW’s are found trackside ready to turn fast laps at a trackday, found in shopping centers helping haul our families, on professional races setting new records or simply sitting in our driveways to be waiting washed and admired before being taken out to a favorite backroad and put through its paces.

We want to see your own interpretations of BMW Joy – so please send an email to Andrew@bmwblog.com and you’ll see your “BMW Joy” photo make an appearance – show us your essence of BMW photos!

As many are now aware, BMW is in the process of implementing its new Joy campaign. The campaign, in a broad stroke, will compliment the long-standing “Ultimate Driving Machine” slogan. The essence of Joy and the proceeding campaign is to show the pleasure that can be derived from these Bavarian masterpieces as true performance machines. In commercials, BMW shows the joy of the driver and the open road, the sensations that the car feeds through its tactile points and, of course, the camaraderie felt by many through the large enthusiast community.

BMW isn’t a company about just making money, they’re a company about evoking emotion.

We at BMWBLOG concur with the Joy campaign. After all, it is, in part why we spend our time on this site and why many of our readers spend their time here pouring over the latest details and stories about the cars that provide Joy in Driving. As a result we thought that, in our own way, we would like to present to our readers a minature Joy campaign of simple pictures that demonstrate the the joy and emotion that can be derived from the ownership or even just the application of Bimmers at what they do best: sporty driving.

For that reason, we will be running these pictures every Friday to get all of our collective blood running for the weekends where, across the planet, BMW’s are found trackside ready to turn fast laps at a trackday, found in shopping centers helping haul our families, on professional races setting new records or simply sitting in our driveways to be waiting washed and admired before being taken out to a favorite backroad and put through its paces.

Our first collection comes to us via our friends at Bulgogi Brothers, a great enthusiast site with an excellent eye for automotive art. We will continue to provide this content but as this is a website driven by enthusiasts – we want to see your own interpretations of BMW Joy – send an email to Andrew@bmwblog.com and you’ll see your “BMW Joy” photo make an appearance – show us your essence of BMW photos!

(Pictures via Bulgogi Brothers and TCL, Ring Taxis by NordscheilefenFan via Bulgogi Brothers)

Take 2 and action.

We have regrouped, learned from the previous unfortunate experience and with the help of BMW of North America, we have rescheduled our live webcast with Jack Pitney, Vice President of Marketing.

To make the deal even harder to refuse (yes, such a cliche), we will conduct the interview and webcast directly from the BMW booth at the 2010 New York Auto Show that begins tomorrow.

Our Senior Editor, Josh Lewis (also a guest host on MotorTrend radio), will give Jack the opportunity to tell us more about the marketing side of “Joy” and to clarify some of the previous assumptions that it will replace the iconic, “Ultimate Driving Machine” slogan.

The live interview will take place on Thursday, April 1st beginning at 2:30PM EST (1:30PM CST; 11:30AM PST).

So mark your calendars and bookmark your browsers, spread the word and we’ll see you on April 1st.

Thank you for your support.

Last week, Jack sent us a short statement outlining the scope of this live webcast.

To my fellow BMW enthusiasts:

I’m writing today to clarify some unfortunate miscommunication that began several weeks ago. Precipitated by an erroneous report in the Wall Street Journal and followed by the national television introduction of our new advertising campaign, some have speculated that we are getting rid of our iconic “Ultimate Driving Machine” brand claim. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In the end it is a brand’s products that define it within the marketplace, and never has this adage been more true than at BMW. For more than eight decades our engineers have defined their mission as bringing the joy of driving to life. Put succinctly, to build the Ultimate Driving Machine. This has been, and continues to be, BMW’s core mission. And this is why our Ultimate Driving Machine brand claim has endured… it is founded on a truth that remains as relevant today as when the company was first founded.

Through our new advertising campaign we celebrate the core mission of the BMW brand; to bring the joy of driving to life. It is the end-result of the Ultimate Driving Machine.

I remain thankful that I work for a company with such a clear sense of purpose. And I remain even more thankful that we have such a devoted family of owners that are so keen to protect and defend the brand. Thank you for that.

For those interested, I invite you to join me in an on-line chat regarding our new campaign as well as some of the exceptional new products soon coming to market. With 19 new models launching over the next twelve months, we at BMW are uniquely placed to capitalize on the momentum in the market.

Thank you again for your continued enthusiasm. Truly, there is only one Ultimate Driving Machine.

Respectfully,

Jack Pitney

Vice President, Marketing

BMW of North America

Jack Pitney, Vice President of Marketing, BMW North America, has offered to sit down with us and take some questions live from our audience around the “Joy” marketing campaign and the “Ultimate Driving Machine” slogan.

The scope of this interview is to focus on the marketing side of “Joy” and some previous assumptions that it will replace the iconic, “Ultimate Driving Machine” slogan.

For the first in the history of BMWBLOG, we will offer a live video interview with Mr. Pitney which will be broadcasted on our website at www.bmwblog.com/udm, as well as on USTREAM.tv.

The interview will take place on March 26th beginning at 12:30 EST (11:30 CST; 9:30 PST).

Starting today until Thursday, March 25th, we will be taking your questions through the comment form below, as well as on our Twitter and Facebook pages. A set of questions will be compiled and Mr. Pitney will respond live during our webcast.

Live video by Ustream

Update: Due to unfortunate technical difficulties, the webcast has been stopped. We will follow up with Jack next week at the New York Auto Show and speak to him on camera about the Joy campaign. Please accept our sincere apologies. Tune in Wednesday, March 31st for “Take two”

Jack Pitney, Vice President of Marketing, BMW North America, has offered to sit down with us and take some questions live from our audience around the “Joy” marketing campaign and the “Ultimate Driving Machine” slogan.

The scope of this interview is to focus on the marketing side of “Joy” and some previous assumptions that it will replace the iconic, “Ultimate Driving Machine” slogan.

For the first time in the history of BMWBLOG, we will offer a live video interview with Mr. Pitney which will be broadcasted on our website at www.bmwblog.com/udm, as well as on USTREAM.tv.

The interview will take place on March 26th beginning at 12:30 EST (11:30 CST; 9:30 PST).

Starting today until Thursday, March 25th, we will be taking your questions through the comment form below, as well as on our Twitter and Facebook pages. A set of questions will be compiled and Mr. Pitney will respond live during our webcast.

Live video by Ustream

Jack Pitney, Vice President of Marketing, BMW North America, has offered to sit down with us and take some questions live from our audience around the “Joy” marketing campaign and the “Ultimate Driving Machine” slogan.

The scope of this interview is to focus on the marketing side of “Joy” and some previous assumptions that it will replace the iconic, “Ultimate Driving Machine” slogan.

For the first in the history of BMWBLOG, we will offer a live video interview with Mr. Pitney which will be broadcasted on our website at www.bmwblog.com/udm, as well as on USTREAM.tv.

The interview will take place on March 26th beginning at 12:30 EST (11:30 CST; 9:30 PST).

Starting today until Thursday, March 25th, we will be taking your questions through the comment form below, as well as on our Twitter and Facebook pages. A set of questions will be compiled and Mr. Pitney will respond live during our webcast.

During the same webcast, we will be taking a few more questions through the chat room available embedded on our page or at USTREAM.tv.

Please join us next Friday, spread the word and again, thank you for your support.

Below, we have a statement from Jack Pitney, VP of Marketing at BMW North America.

To my fellow BMW enthusiasts:

I’m writing today to clarify some unfortunate miscommunication that began several weeks ago. Precipitated by an erroneous report in the Wall Street Journal and followed by the national television introduction of our new advertising campaign, some have speculated that we are getting rid of our iconic “Ultimate Driving Machine” brand claim. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In the end it is a brand’s products that define it within the marketplace, and never has this adage been more true than at BMW. For more than eight decades our engineers have defined their mission as bringing the joy of driving to life. Put succinctly, to build the Ultimate Driving Machine. This has been, and continues to be, BMW’s core mission. And this is why our Ultimate Driving Machine brand claim has endured… it is founded on a truth that remains as relevant today as when the company was first founded.

Through our new advertising campaign we celebrate the core mission of the BMW brand; to bring the joy of driving to life. It is the end-result of the Ultimate Driving Machine.

I remain thankful that I work for a company with such a clear sense of purpose. And I remain even more thankful that we have such a devoted family of owners that are so keen to protect and defend the brand. Thank you for that.

For those interested, I invite you to join me in an on-line chat regarding our new campaign as well as some of the exceptional new products soon coming to market. With 19 new models launching over the next twelve months, we at BMW are uniquely placed to capitalize on the momentum in the market.

Thank you again for your continued enthusiasm. Truly, there is only one Ultimate Driving Machine.

Respectfully,

Jack Pitney

Vice President, Marketing

BMW of North America

Jack Pitney Biography

Jack Pitney, Vice President, Marketing, joined BMW of North America in 1995. Working at the company’s headquarters for North America, he is currently responsible for marketing and product development for the BMW brand in the United States.

Prior to this position, Pitney was Vice President of MINI, where he spearheaded the brand’s reintroduction to the United States. Previous to this, Pitney was head of Corporate Communications, where he was responsible for BMW of North America’s overall communications strategies, media and analyst relations, TV and film product placement, and U.S. employee communications.

Before joining BMW of North America, LLC, Pitney worked at Mazda Motor of America’s US headquarters in California as Manager, Corporate Communications.

Pitney has previously worked as Vice President at Hill and Knowlton, Los Angeles, heading the Mazda account and as Vice President at GCI Group/Los Angeles where he oversaw the launch of Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury car division.

Pitney began his public relations career in New York City where he worked for Ruder Finn Public Relations, Hill Holliday Connors Cosmopulos Advertising, and Bauer & Rosner Marketing Communications.

Pitney began his career in the advertising department at a local newspaper in Brooklyn, New York.

Pitney earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Occidental College. He was born in Stamford, CT in 1963.

The Joy marketing campaign continues with a new episode, BMW Physics Lesson. The latest iteration in this highly controversial campaign, focuses again on the two keywords we’ve been hearing over and over: Efficiency and Dynamics.

Ever since its inception, the EfficientDynamics slogan, branding if you want to call it, has focused on demonstrating the consumers that dynamics and performance can and will be associated with reduced fuel consumption.

Moving away from the large, high-rev, but not so fuel friendly engines, BMW wants to maintain its premium luxury icon and the image of a performance brand, a driver’s car that has been around for generations.

Let’s have a look at this latest episode.