The archive · Content & Film · Marketing decision · 2001–2002
BMW 'The Hire': eight A-list short films sell cars online — no 30-second spot
In 2001 BMW skips TV for eight ten-minute films by Ang Lee, Wong Kar-wai and John Woo, starring Clive Owen — 11M views in four months, sales up 12%.
BMW (BMW of North America)
What it had to solve
BMW of North America found that 85% of its customers researched cars online before entering a dealer, so a conventional TV buy was the wrong crowd at the wrong moment; the brand wanted film-loving traffic on its own site and a way to show driving performance without claiming it.
How it works
In 2001 BMW of North America concluded that its customers no longer met the brand in a 30-second commercial: 85% researched cars online before walking into a dealer. So BMW skipped the spot and made a film series. 'The Hire' put a nameless professional driver, played by Clive Owen, at the wheel through eight ten-minute thrillers, with the performance of each BMW doing the selling that a claim could not.
The production was cinema, not content marketing with a logo. Anonymous Content and Fallon Worldwide recruited John Frankenheimer, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-wai, Guy Ritchie, Alejandro González Iñárritu and John Woo, at a reported $9 million budget. Films premiered free on bmwfilms.com, later pressed onto DVDs distributed through dealerships and even bound into Vanity Fair — a web-first owned channel at a time when broadband was young.
The numbers made the experiment a strategy: 11 million views in the first four months, two million registered users, and a 12% sales increase in 2001. By the time BMW closed the series in October 2005 the films had been viewed over 100 million times, had won a Grand Clio (2002) and a Clio Hall of Fame induction (2011), and the Museum of Modern Art added the series to its permanent collection.
The Hire did not just sell BMW — it changed the toolbox. Nissan answered with 'The Run' for the 350Z, Mercedes with Michael Mann's 'Lucky Star', and Luc Besson acknowledged the series as the basis for 'The Transporter'. BMW itself pulled the films in 2005 as the project grew too costly, then revived the Driver in 2016's 'The Escape' and returned to Cannes with 'The Calm' in 2023.
Why it lands
- The own-site insight reframed distribution: traffic to bmwfilms.com was already near-purchase, so audience quality justified a $9M budget that a broadcast spot could not have earned back.
- Directors got genuine authorship and actors got real roles, so the work out-earned commercial attention — people forwarded the films, and each new installment refreshed the last.
- The product starred as a co-actor, not a claim: audiences saw the car's craft through the Driver's work, which is how a performance claim becomes an experience.
- Free distribution converted a campaign into a registered owned audience of two million — the list survived the campaign itself.
What it did
Over 11 million views in four months, 2 million registered users, and 2001 sales up 12%; the series passed 100 million views by its 2005 close, earned a Grand Clio, and entered the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection — while Mercedes, Nissan and Ford rushed to copy the format.
What you can take
A brand film earns attention when it is first a film: give real creators freedom, star the product as a co-actor, not a pitchman, and give the work away to build an owned audience.
Since then
The series became the template for branded entertainment — Mercedes 'Lucky Star', Nissan 'The Run', Ford 'Le Fantôme' and even Besson's 'The Transporter' all descended from it — and won a 2002 Grand Clio and a Clio Hall of Fame nod. BMW retired The Hire in October 2005 with 100 million+ views logged, reportedly too costly, and Fallon and BMW split soon after. The Driver returned in 2016 with 'The Escape' (Clive Owen returning, Neill Blomkamp directing), and in 2023 'The Calm' premiered at Cannes with Uma Thurman. The series sits in MoMA's permanent collection.
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