BMW North America has announced it will soon roll out its largest-ever national retail and advertising campaign connected to its sponsorship of Team USA.

Photo: BMW sponsors Team USA, from britbull.blogspot.com

The key elements of the campaign will include national and local television ads; digital advertising; and a new version of ‘BMW Drive for Team USA,’ a retail program launched last year to get people to test drive BMW vehicles and raise money for Olympians.

The second ‘BMW Drive for Team USA,’ will allow consumers to go to BMW dealers to test drive the new 3 Series. For each test drive BMW North America will donate $10 to Team USA, for a maximum donation of $200,000. Last year the program included 277 test drive events and this year it expands to over 300 events to include appearances by U.S. Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, former athletes, and other Olympics related people.

BMW’s Mini USA division will launch its own program called ‘Mini Takes the States,’ a series of events that also benefit the Paralympic Team, says Marketing Daily. In the interview to the magazine, Stacy Morris, who handles marketing and culture communications for the Woodcliff Lake, N.J.-based BMW North America said that BMW North America’s Summer Olympics ad buy on NBC will be the biggest single media buy ever for the company. The main reason for it is that BMW North America sponsors Team USA.

Last year, the test-drive program was promoted with TV ads but this year initiative will be supported by CRM and direct-marketing efforts to owners and prospects only, according to Morris.

In total, BMW is supporting 11 Olympic and Paralympic athletes and hopefuls, and together they form the ‘BMW Performance Team U.S.’ The automaker will give 4,000 vehicles to the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. To showcase its vehicles, BMW has built a showroom above the Waterworks River near the Olympic Stadium and the Aquatics Center.