BMW plans to use a product-placement strategy it debuted during the U.S. Open last month "during NFL and college-football coverage later this year,” according to Michael McCarthy of AD AGE. The automaker's ads on NBC during the golf tournament were "typical 'Ultimate Driving Machine' commercials ... until the end -- when viewers suddenly saw a TaylorMade R1 driver banging a TaylorMade golf ball off a tee.” Both BMW and TaylorMade-adidas Golf "declined to say if -- or how much -- TaylorMade paid to integrate products within BMW's commercials.” The ads were developed for BMW by Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners, N.Y. TaylorMade recently tapped Eleven, S.F., as its agency of record, but it “was not involved with the ad.” BMW North America Marketing Communications & Consumer Events Head Trudy Hardy said that the product-placement idea “grew out of BMW's advertising and media strategy" for NBC's coverage of the '12 London Games. BMW inserted “end-tags in 13 Olympic spots to better transition into specific sports such as swimming, gymnastics and boxing.” BMW and TaylorMade are “planning similar spots for coverage" of the automaker's BMW Championship Sept. 12-15 (ADAGE.com, 7/8).
