To wish customers a new year of safe driving, BMW, together with ad agency AIR and electronics company Selectron, creates a Christmas card meant to be hung in the car.
A micro-sensor is built into the card to measure driving behaviour and react with a spoken message, “Ho! Ho! Hooo! Just like Santa!”, when the car is driven unsafely. The sensor measures G-forces and reacts when the car accelerates too much, or when it brakes or drives too quickly through bends.
A Christmas card that behaves like a safety co-driver
This is not a decorative greeting. The card acts like a lightweight in-car safety layer. It listens for aggressive driving signals, then interrupts with a playful warning that is hard to ignore.
Why this fits the BMW M League audience
These limited-edition cards are sent to members of the BMW M League who recently buy their car and participate in the BMW Track Days. For that audience, performance driving is part of the identity. This card nudges safer habits without lecturing, because it speaks in a tone that feels seasonal and disarming.
The pattern to steal
- Pick a behaviour you want to influence and measure it directly.
- Embed the intervention into a physical object people will actually place in the environment.
- Trigger feedback at the exact moment of behaviour, not later in an email or app.
- Use a tone that makes the correction acceptable, so people do not reject it on instinct.
A few fast answers before you act
What is the BMW Christmas Safety Card?
A Christmas card designed to hang in a car, with a built-in micro-sensor that detects unsafe driving and plays a Santa-style voice warning.
What does the sensor measure?
G-forces. It reacts to strong acceleration, hard braking, and taking bends too quickly.
Who receives these cards?
Members of the BMW M League who recently buy their car and participate in the BMW Track Days.
What is the core idea in one line?
Turn a seasonal greeting into an in-car behavioural nudge that activates in the moment.
