An awesome advert slogan is greater than only a catchy phrase—it’s a mission assertion wrapped in just a few fastidiously chosen phrases. One of the best of them don’t simply promote a product; they outline it. Suppose: “Simply Do It,” “The place’s the Beef?” or “A Diamond is Eternally.” These strains aren’t simply memorable; they faucet into one thing primal, one thing irresistible.
But when there’s one slogan that stands above the remainder, at the very least within the automotive world, it’s “The Final Driving Machine.” Coined in 1974 by Martin Puris for BMW, it didn’t simply promote automobiles—it captured the very essence of what a BMW is.
On the time, BMW was in the midst of an inside revolution. The corporate was combating to free itself from its long-standing (and more and more problematic) distribution contract with Max Hoffman, the person who had single-handedly launched the model to the U.S. many years earlier. However by the early ’70s, BMW’s management—notably Bob Lutz, then a board member for gross sales—realized that Hoffman’s mannequin was holding them again. Unbiased distributors like him have been making their very own advertising choices, resulting in a fragmented model picture.
“You may’t outline the model if in case you have particular person distributors and particular person corporations making up their very own minds easy methods to promote, easy methods to place the automotive, and so forth,” Lutz later recalled. “All of them had totally different promoting businesses and the automobiles have been all positioned in another way, even in Europe. However regardless of the quasi-ineptness of a few of the sellers in how they positioned the automobiles, the model for some cause was so sturdy.” That cause? The sheer brilliance of the automobiles themselves. BMW had already earned a cult following in automotive magazines, and the product spoke for itself—what it wanted was a unified voice to amplify its message.
So when BMW of North America was formally launched, Lutz knew that advertising could be every thing. He put the corporate’s promoting account up for evaluate, narrowing the sphere to a few businesses: two giant, well-established companies (Ted Bates and Benton & Bowles) and a scrappy upstart known as Ammirati, Puris, AvRutnick (which might quickly develop into Ammirati & Puris).
BMW gave every agency full entry to executives, a critical price range, and three months to develop a pitch. In Munich, Ammirati & Puris made their case to Lutz, BMW NA’s CEO John Plant, and different key decision-makers. The primary advert they introduced? A easy print piece introducing a daring new tagline: The Final Driving Machine.
“They cherished it!” Puris recalled years later. “I feel we have been the one company that understood the automotive BMW constructed.”
And what they understood was this: BMW wasn’t about luxurious within the conventional sense. It wasn’t about wooden trim, gentle leather-based, or hushed cabins. It was about one thing way more visceral—efficiency. “It’s the one factor that makes an costly automotive well worth the cash,” Puris mentioned. “We by no means mentioned ‘luxurious automotive.’ The query [to the customer] is, how do you need to spend your cash? Is it on leather-based and burled walnut? Or do you need to spend it on efficiency? The road itself selects its market.”
At first, BMW of North America had restricted capability to run its personal adverts, as Hoffman was nonetheless technically the official importer. As a substitute, the model leaned on BMW Motorsport to unfold the phrase. When BMW’s racing staff scored its first large American victory at Sebring on March 21, 1975—only a week after BMW NA’s authorized battle with Hoffman was settled—the corporate wasted no time. They ran celebratory adverts that includes the Final Driving Machine tagline, and from that second on, BMW’s advertising had a transparent, plain id. The model’s performance-first message wasn’t simply promoting spin—it was backed up by the product itself. “BMW put a race engine in a household automotive, which no one had ever carried out earlier than,” Puris defined.
Over time, the connection between Ammirati & Puris and BMW solely deepened. Puris’s staff bought to know the individuals behind the automobiles—the engineers, designers, and decision-makers who formed BMW’s DNA. “The physique has modified. The expertise has modified. However it’s nonetheless the automotive designed and engineered by individuals who love efficiency,” he mentioned.
The numbers advised the remainder of the story. In 1974, BMW offered 15,007 automobiles within the U.S. By 1975, that quantity had jumped to 19,419. By 1976, it was 26,040. A decade later, BMW was pushing 100,000 automobiles per 12 months.
“The Ammirati & Puris adverts helped tremendously,” mentioned BMW NA’s then-PR supervisor Tom McGurn. “Originally, we have been making an attempt to tell apart ourselves, and their work was good. Their adverts in contrast being concerned with driving in a BMW versus taking place the street on a settee—actually spot-on.” The marketing campaign didn’t simply construct model consciousness; it carved out a novel area for BMW in a market dominated by Mercedes, Volvo, Jaguar, and Audi.
In 1992, BMW NA put its promoting account up for evaluate. Ammirati & Puris, regardless of having constructed BMW’s whole U.S. id, declined to pitch a brand new proposal—strolling away from an account value $70 million a 12 months. Since then, BMW has labored with varied businesses, however The Final Driving Machine has endured.
And that’s no accident. Puris all the time knew the road had endurance. “So long as they stored constructing the identical automobiles, so long as they adopted the identical idea of what a BMW was and is, so long as they pursued the story of extraordinary efficiency… In the event that they produce true BMWs, they’ll use the road without end.”
Fifty years later, BMW continues to be utilizing it. As a result of, for all of the advertising communicate on the planet, one fact stays: a fantastic slogan solely works if the product lives as much as it. And BMW? Effectively, for many years, they constructed automobiles that weren’t simply good—they have been the last word.
