BMW
advertising and experiential creation with generative AI
BMW uses generative AI as a brand creative engine: the Mega Me experience at BMW Welt drew more than 15,000 visitors in 2023, a campaign projected art generated by a model trained on 50,000 paintings, and a 30-second iX3 spot was fully generated by AI in 2026.
Objective
Use generative AI as a brand creative engine: create experiences and campaigns that get people talking, generate earned media, and position BMW on the innovation front, while testing when AI creation works and when it does not.
The deployment
BMW has industrialized generative AI in its brand creative across several formats. At BMW Welt in Munich, the Mega Me experience (January to September 2023) let visitors take a selfie and then see themselves animated in real time on a 42-square-meter 3D LED screen, at the wheel of the BMW i Vision Dee, via Reface's face-swap technology with the agency Elastique. On another campaign, a model trained on more than 50,000 paintings generated works projected onto the BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe, with Goodby, Silverstein and Partners. More recently, BMW produced a 30-second spot for the iX3 fully generated by AI, with no camera or crew, presented by the brand as a test of the process as much as of the result.
Results Proof C
Several distinct brand formats, dated and quantified (15,000 visitors, corpus of 50,000 paintings), documented by the established marketing press and a case study from the technical provider; no financial metric isolating the commercial impact, hence level C.
How it works
Documented architectureThe stack in detail
- outil Reface Face-swap and real-time rendering technology for the Mega Me experience: the visitor's selfie is converted into anonymized vectors then animated on the 3D screen.
- llm Modeles generatifs d'image et de video (non nommes) Art model trained on more than 50,000 paintings for the 8 Series campaign and video generation for the iX3 spot; the sources do not name the exact models.
- integrateur Elastique. Creative agency for the Mega Me experience at BMW Welt.
- integrateur Goodby, Silverstein and Partners Agency for the AI-generated art campaign projected onto the BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe.
How it runs, concretely
For ops teams-
1Creative framing marketing
BMW and the agency define the concept and the references (works, style, message).
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2Model preparation agency
The generative model is trained or tuned on the reference corpus (for example 50,000 paintings).
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3Generation AI
The AI produces the image, video, or real-time animation (Mega Me face-swap, projected art, iX3 spot).
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4Control and distribution marketing
The teams validate continuity and rendering, then distribute as an installation, projection, or spot.
The creative input: the visitor's selfie for Mega Me, the reference corpus of works for the generated art, the brief and references for the AI spot. Without art direction and continuity control, the generated output drifts.
How your customers perceive this type of use
Sourced studiesUn ecart net separe les annonceurs des consommateurs : 77% des annonceurs voient l'IA positivement contre 38% des consommateurs (Yahoo/Publicis, 2024). Les mesures implicites confirment le rejet declare : en EEG, les pubs generees par IA produisent une activation memorielle plus faible que les pubs traditionnelles et sont decrites comme agacantes, ennuyeuses et confuses (NIQ, 2024). La disclosure a un effet ambivalent : elle augmente fortement la confiance quand elle est remarquee (Yahoo/Publicis), mais 27% des jeunes consommateurs disent faire moins confiance a une entreprise dont la pub est creee par IA (IAB, 2024).
Acceptance conditions
- Une disclosure visible : quand la mention IA est remarquee, la confiance globale envers l'entreprise augmente de 96% (Yahoo/Publicis 2024)
- Une qualite visuelle suffisante : les visuels IA de basse qualite augmentent l'effort cognitif et distraient du message (NIQ 2024)
Red lines
- Le contenu IA non declare puis identifie : 72% des consommateurs disent que l'IA rend l'authenticite difficile a etablir (Yahoo/Publicis 2024) et les marques utilisant des pubs IA sont plus souvent jugees inauthentiques ou non ethiques par les consommateurs que par les dirigeants (IAB 2024)
- Les mannequins et personnes generes par IA : 46% des consommateurs n'en veulent pas dans la publicite, l'inquietude premiere etant les standards de beaute irrealistes (Attest 2025)
Sources: Yahoo / Publicis Media (terrain Ebco) 2024 · IAB (avec Attest) 2024 · NIQ (NielsenIQ) 2024 · Attest 2025
How to replicate
Inference, not sourcedData prerequisites
- reference corpus (images, works, brand assets)
- possible user input (photo) with biometric consent
Org prerequisites
- in-house art direction or agency
- quality control on continuity and brand compliance
Possible stack
- image and video generation models
- face-swap / vision for the experiential part
- real-time rendering pipeline
The plan, step by step
- Step 1Choose the activation (event, campaign) and frame the concept with the agency; check the legal framework, in particular rights and biometric data if a selfie is involved.Deliverable: Creative brief and legal analysis validated.
- Step 2Prototype the generated rendering: tune or train the model on the reference corpus (works, brand assets).Deliverable: Proof of concept validated by art direction.
- Step 3Produce the final asset and control continuity and brand compliance frame by frame.Deliverable: Asset ready to distribute (installation, projection, or spot).
- Step 4Deploy the activation and measure participation, press coverage, and engagement.Deliverable: Activation assessment: visitors, earned media, lessons.
First step: Choose an activation with high earned-media potential and prototype the generated rendering before exposing it to the public.
The same pattern, proven in other industries
Adobe
in-house genAI production of marketing content at scale
Atlassian
internal genAI agents for account targeting and marketing content production
Coca-Cola
genAI video production of a global-scale brand campaign
Sources
- S1 How we created a personalized user experience on a huge 3D screen in real-time (BMW Mega Me case) Interested party archive pending
- S2 BMW Projected AI-Generated Art Onto Its Cars For New Campaign Established press archive pending
- S3 BMW Made An Entire Car Ad With AI. No Camera, No Crew Secondary archive pending
An error, newer info, a source?
This page lives on its accuracy. If a figure has moved, if the deployment has changed, or if you have a higher-quality source, tell us. Every sourced correction is verified before publication.