BMW retains Leo Burnett as lead creative agency

Castro Tian, director of client services at Leo Burnett, will lead the business out of Beijing. The agency's last public work for the brand was for the London Olympics last year, when four TVCs were made to showcase Chinese athletes (Liu Xiang, Xu Li Jia, Lei Sheng & Zhang Yu) and the aspirations of a young boy wanting to be a basketball hero.

According to L2's 'Digital IQ Index', BMW is ranked behind fellow prestige brands Volvo and Audi when it comes to digital brand competence.

As the nation's luxury auto market contracts, BMW is said to be repositioning to capture new consumer groups with a new China-only car and more fuel-efficient vehicles. In total, the German automaker is aiming to sell 1 million cars in China over the next three years.