Road to Coachella

BMW i looked to seamlessly blend music, inspired design, technology, sustainable mobility, and the journey that fans and artists take on their own road to Coachella. Our goal was to turn a localized sponsorship into an international story, making the mobility partner an active participant rather than a passive sponsor.

We partnered with RCA Records to identify Khalid as the ideal artist partner for Road to Coachella. We seamlessly integrated the spirit of Khalid by taking elements of his art and using it to wrap a fleet of BMW i8 Roadsters. We digitized Khalid’s imagery and combined it with imagery from the Coachella poster and iconography reflecting key BMW elements. The entire piece was customized to complement the design of the i8 itself.

Days before Khalid’s album launch, Billboard and others released an original content piece debuting the Free Spirit art on the BMW i fleet. Coachella, BMW, Khalid, and RCA Records all featured the video across their respective social media accounts.

We also partnered with 30+ international influencers by sending them on their own road to Coachella in a fleet of custom-wrapped Khalid BMW i8’s. All of them shared original photos and videos along the way, garnering tens-of-millions of impressions from festival and automotive fans alike.

In Palm Springs, we built a unique pop-up experience during Weekend One of the festival. This featured a shipping container housing exclusive Khalid merchandise, the iconic van from his album cover, two BMW i vehicles wrapped in Khalid’s design, an album art photo opp, and a claw machine with custom bandanas. 

The campaign exceeded expectations and reached over a billion people through social media, press, and marketing efforts.

We were able to answer the question of how a brand can integrate into a music festival and create an organic open dialogue with its fans. Global outlets like Forbes and Billboard used the campaign as a case study of how brands should effectively engage with festival audiences. Ultimately, BMW i took a localized sponsorship, and made an international legacy.