matt warren

Question: “How much of the cost of a BMW goes to covering their media costs?”

Answer: About 1.5% per BMW sold in North America.

Here’s the logic behind the answer:

In 2008, BMW sold 249,113 BMW’s in North America.

Let’s just say the average price is $40,000 per BMW. I understand it could be less, it could be more, but for this let’s stick with $40k/ea. So $40k x 249,113 = about $9.96B. Keep in mind that BMW does about $76.6B in global sales every year.

Now, let’s take their ad budget - which in 2002 was rumored to be $150M. It’s probably more now but let’s keep it at $150M for this (it’s more with inflation but with economic cutbacks it could be a wash).

So basically, $150M = about 1.51% of $9.9B. I know it’s rough but it’s a starting point.