M5 T-Shirt Front

Nice M-Surprise in the Mail

So the other day an unexpected package showed up in the mail. Actually, my lovely wife Jill is a strong financial supporter of Amazon…so unexpected packages are arriving all the time. Let me rephrase…an unexpected package with my name on it showed up in the mail.

Lo and behold, the package contained the letter below from BMW and a black, all-cotton, XL t-shirt. The letter, fortunately to my surprise, was just that and not an invoice in disguise. I for one am all for receiving gifts in the mail…it’s far less awkward than receiving gifts in person that you really don’t know what to do with.

The letter states:

On behalf of BMW of North America, we would like to thank you for your participation in the BMW Happier New Year Sweepstakes. As a token of our appreciation, we’ve enclosed an exclusive M t-shirt.

Thank you again for being a BMW fan!

I don’t actually remember entering any sweepstakes, though I probably did, and so obviously did not expect much to come out of it. I have no idea whether this was some tertiary prize, or as implied, truly a token perhaps sent out to all entrants.

I like to think it was the latter, especially after doing some searching and coming up with some mentions about the sweepstakes and prizes that included things like backpacks, bags and suitcases, wallets, and watches (admittedly I much would have preferred one of the $259 watches) but no mention of any T-shirts.

From a business point of view, this is actually brilliant and I commend BMW. While contests and sweepstakes these days are so often about gaining Likes or Tweets—and they may have gotten those too—this further promotes their brand in the offline world at minimal expense to them and in some way I think, creates a more personal connection with their fan base.

In a way, this T-shirt is even more special than one of the official prizes.

Just think about it…as part of a sweepstakes, the official prizes are given away out of obligation, but this, marvelous token of appreciation, is given out of love.

BMW, I love you too and I do love the shirt, but I’d really have loved one of the watches. I’m only human.