The Marketing Power Of The Big Screen

Cinema has long been a showroom for the latest cars on the market and companies spend vast amounts of money on product placement as it is a hugely effective marketing tool, especially with Hollywood blockbusters that will be seen by millions of people on the big screen across the world.
There have been many memorable films involving cars through the years, from Steve McQueen's Bullitt, featuring the iconic green Ford Mustang speeding through the streets of San Francisco in pursuit of the bad guys, through to the 2001 smash hit, The Fast and the Furious, where an undercover cop becomes embroiled in the world of street racing in Los Angeles, featuring suped up Hondas, Mazdas, Nissans and Mitsubishis.
Many car manufacturers have used new models in films which has worked as an extremely effective marketing tool. In the 1995 James Bond film, Goldeneye BMW sued the film to showcase their new sports car, the BMW Z3. The film was a huge success, with Pierce Brosnan starring as Bond for the first time and with Goldeneye being the first Bond movie for six years. BMW were inundated with sales requests for the Z3 and it became a very popular marques for BMW over the next few years.
In fact BMWs have been heavily featured on film for decades. One of the most memorable moments involving a BMW on the big screen in recent years was the 1998 Robert De Niro film, Ronin, which features one of film's greatest car chases involving a BMW 525i being speeding through Nice in pursuit of a Peogeot 406. The shrill of French Police sirens and the screeching of wheels through the corners is only outdone by the revving of the BMW's engine speeding through the tunnels and windy streets.
The BMW 735i made an overstated performance in The Transporter, where British actor Jason Statham couriers packages - drugs usually and in the case of the plot, a stowaway lady who he naturally falls for. BMW lovers and martial arts fans would have been drooling at The Transporter on first viewing! The BMW's sleek black lines glisten in the sunny climate of the French Med, as he speeds through beautiful surroundings.
There have of course been some cinematic rotten tomato moments involving cars, none more so that Bond's invisible Aston Martin in possibly the worst Bond film ever, Die Another Die. And there have been some car films that have bordered on failure, including the sequel to The Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious.
There is no doubting that when a new car is watched by a packed audience that many will leave the cinema dreaming of owning the car that they have just seen on the big screen. In that sense the vast amounts of money spent by car manufacturers on product placement in movies is worthwhile. Most of the time, unless the film is a stinker, it has the desired effect and interest and anticipation grows as to the release date of the protagonist car.
Cinema, as well as being a huge cultural sphere, is also a powerful advertising and marketing tool, not in the sense of brain washing the viewer but in terms of providing the 'wow factor' that gets people talking and adds an element of 'cool' to the product, in this case the car.
About the Author
Shaun Parker is a branding expert with many years of experience in the car industry. Find out more about BMW at http://www.cooperbmw.co.uk

Automotive Safety Features Go Green

Every year, millions of drivers are injured in automobile accidents. It's no wonder, then, that experts recently confirmed the automotive market is driven by three major demands: fuel efficiency, environmental responsibility and safety features.

All of this seems straightforward enough. Meeting market demands, however, can be complicated. Adding safety features may mean adding more weight to the vehicle - which can lead to lower fuel economy. Reducing weight in the wrong places could leave passengers' safety in jeopardy. But leading automotive engineers are somehow finding ways to do it all.

The importance of many advanced safety features lies in their ability to utilize electronics in ingenious ways. Lane departure warning systems, for instance, can use forward looking cameras, which - through advanced technological adaptations - signal an audio or visual alert to drivers when they travel out of their respective lanes. Similarly, infrared side alert systems help drivers become aware of vehicles in their blind spots when making turns or changing lanes with audible and/or visual alerts.
Night vision systems integrate near-infrared illuminators into the headlights and are used with an infrared-sensitive camera and a head-up display to improve drivers' nighttime visibility without blinding oncoming traffic. The adapted headlights illuminate the road ahead, the camera captures the image, and the head-up display provides an enhanced version of that image to the driver.

While night vision helps give drivers a clearer view of what is happening on the road ahead, smart cruise control with headway alert and stop-and-go actually responds to traffic conditions by reducing the need to manually adjust speed, apply the brakes or disengage cruise control. This type of advanced system can also warn drivers of slower traffic ahead.

Even more exciting, multiple vehicular systems can be integrated - "talk" with each other and create a cocoon of safety around the vehicle. In the future, vehicles may even be able to "talk" to each other through wireless communication. Such technology carries with it the hope of eliminating accidents altogether. Imagine a world where roadway accidents simply aren't an issue.

Developing the technology for each of these advanced safety features is only one part of the puzzle. Weight, space and environmental challenges must also be met in order to actually apply these technologies. Integration of multiple vehicular systems is one way that automotive engineers are able to find space for the addition of new technologies, while also minimizing added weight. For example, one radar can be used for both Adaptive Cruise Control and Pre-crash sensing. Another strategy is to develop and utilize materials that are lighter and smaller than those already being used on a vehicle.

Achieving high-tech, fuel-efficient cars with a green environmental consciousness is complicated, but today's automotive engineers are up to the challenge. As the automotive industry continues to find creative ways to reduce the weight and size of new and existing automotive technologies, they can fit more of these innovations into the same space while improving fuel economy. More safety features can mean a less hazardous ride. Combined with better fuel economy and an elevated environmental consciousness, that means a better product. It creates a win-win situation - for both the consumer and the environment.

Automotive technology has created possibilities, and with possibilities come hope and expectation. Consumers have big goals and high standards. It's not enough for vehicles to look good and guarantee a degree of safety. They need to have high-tech safety features, be environmentally friendly and promise fuel efficiency. All of this is possible, and it's the little changes along the way - like better system integration, smaller components and computer chips, and technical innovation - that will help make it happen.

About the Author
Mike Trudel, Freelance Writer.
Delphi is committed to contributing state-of-the-art technologies and innovations in order to help make our roadways safer and greener. For more information, visit www.Delphi.com/4green and www.Delphi.com/4safe.