BMW Group –
Press Conference Design-System

In the course of BMW's new trade fair strategy we developed a modular design system for
Press conferences at international motor shows.

Lead trade fair communication & architecture: Meiré und Meiré.

The brand space as a stage

With the new concept we expanded the real trade fair stand, developed by the trade fair lead agency Meiré und Meiré, on the digital stage and translated the BMW Group and the group brands into brand spaces. All in we’ve created eleven individual rooms that provide a virtual stage for vehicle-specific content.

BMW Designpackage Intro BMWm

11 digital brand rooms for BMW Group, product brands and sub-brands

Completely modular templates, design & animation workflows

Extremely short setup times despite total resolution of more than 6K

LED area up to 12x6m.

Light & Shadow

To create conscious connections and differentiations between the brands we make use of the architecture and lines of the rooms. By using different materials and the play of light and shadow we convey the brand-specific character.

ElastiqueBMW Designpackage 960x1000Markenarchitektur

Translation of the brand architecture

In order to make the BMW Group more tangible as a superordinate group and to include the brand architecture aesthetically, we made use of the Matryoshka principle: interlocking brand spaces create connections and hierarchies, with the BMW Group space clearly representing the hub. The teasers anchored in it represent the sub-brands, which can be immersed in by camera movements. Using this principle, the "classic" brand space was further developed, and the BMW Group lifted to a new level. 

Maximum power across all channels

The dramaturgical construction and dismantling of the rooms create excitement and provide the perfect stage for the content. In this way, the contents could unfold their full power across all channels. Also the combination of digital curtain and multi-channel sound system create multi-sensory brand experiences.

BMW DesignPackage 0001 making off 3

A flexible, sustainable
design system

The challenge was to create a system that is flexible enough to sustainably increase brand recognition, different trade fair settings and multilingualism over many years. Due to the short production times and the challenge to create highly aesthetic images, we developed a modular design system that can be used to react to changes at short notice. 

 

Wireframe becomes a speaker chart

To perfect the interaction between Elastique, Bluescope (content management) and BMW, we developed tools to structure and design the content together. Based on an analysis of last year's press conferences, we generated layout templates that can be used to represent all content. Thereby a content management system enables us to translate the content created by the client into speaker charts and animation sequences. For this purpose, all templates were produced cross-platform and split into their individual parts. In doing so the flexibility of the design system enables us to combine all content as needed and reduce production times to a minimum. A nice side effect: Due to the systematic process, the speakers have a document to rehearse weeks in advance.

BMW DesignPackage 0004 making off wireframes

Digitalization

For BMW, we had to adapt the PK to a completely different media setup and the requirements of a "digital PK" within two days when the press conference at the Geneva Motor Show was cancelled at short notice.

This worked really well and it is currently being discussed whether digital formats can continue to be part of the classic press conference work for automobilists in the future.

Why our design system could be adapted so spontaneously and quickly:

This extremely flexible system enabled us to optimally adapt the visual content to the camera lens. The car, the moderator as well as the digital content on the LEDs resulted in an optimal interaction. The different brand spaces also provided a very good framework for the new situation.

The Digital Press Conference via live streaming from March 3, 2020 "WORLD PREMIERE OF THE BMW CONCEPT i4" can be viewed here.