In the latest episode of ‘Moments with Marketers… in Uber Rides’, BMW’s Alex McLean shares why the strongest brands aren’t just present in the moment – they’re purposeful, personal and deeply connected to the customer.
Some brands want attention. Others want meaning. With a bit of work, you can have both.
In the latest episode of ‘Moments with Marketers… in Uber Rides’, BMW’s General Manager of Marketing, Alex McLean, joins Uber’s Michael Levine to talk about how brands can create emotional connection through the moments that matter.
With experience spanning creative agencies and premium automotive, McLean brings both strategic clarity and personal insight to the conversation. His view? Great brands don’t just show up at events – they show up with purpose.
McLean explains: “We make a conscious decision not just to logo slap these events. It’s about how we leverage the event to add depth to us? And to do that, you need to bring depth to the event.”
For BMW, this means being highly selective about what the brand participates in – and more importantly, what it doesn’t.
He says: “You can’t do everything. What you say ‘no’ to allows you to say ‘yes’ to others and do it really well.”
But when the right moment comes along, McLean believes the key to long-term brand impact is connection – a lasting emotional thread that ties the experience to the brand.
This is where McLean’s personal philosophy of “champagne moments” comes into play- if someone proposes with a bottle of champagne and their partner says ‘yes’ they will likely have a positive connection with that bottle for the rest of their life.
The goal, he explains, is to create those so-called champagne moments for BMW.
He says: “It’s really about how we make a connection with that moment for the individuals and make it more than just a logo awareness piece. That’s really how you can leverage it.”
McLean has actively applied this same thinking to the automotive category, with one equivalent being the moment a customer picks up their car. Drawing from his time at MINI Australia & New Zealand, McLean shares how his team uncovered a powerful behavioural insight – that a large proportion of MINI owners named their car.
So they built a campaign around it, including a personalised grill badge and one of the brand’s most memorable out-of-home activations to date.
McLean reveals: “Through out-of-home media and number plate recognition technology, we were able to essentially personalise out-of-home digital screens to reference the car driving past and say hello to whatever that car’s name is.
“That’s repeated engagement and on a one-to-one level. It was crazy,” he adds.
But the moment doesn’t end at delivery – or even at the event. McLean believes that marketers will only garner the best results when they leverage more than just the moment when it’s actually happening.
McLean says: “It’s like a tail of a comet – be it the continued communication following an event or following up with people who weren’t engaging at the time, it allows you to repeat the story.
“I remember many years ago, a leading creative said to me – juice every single idea. Juice everything you can out of it before you throw it away.”
Watch the full series of Moments with Marketers… in Uber Rides on B&T’s YouTube channel, with more episodes rolling out soon. Previous episodes feature marketing leaders from THE ICONIC, Telstra, Tourism Australia and Spark Foundry. The series was created by Uber Advertising.
