Perfect Timing.

From a first golf shoot to a long Garmin era

Garmin is one of our oldest clients. The collaboration began with a golf shoot in Dubai — our very first big job abroad. Then came the Varia spot in Bolzano in 2015, a film about the world's first bike radar. And in 2016 came the film this page is really about — still our biggest for Garmin to date: the Edge 820 »Perfect Timing«.

The job came through our partner agency at the time, Fiedler Concepts — Monika Fiedler-Proksch, a Munich event and communications agency for sports & lifestyle and a longtime Garmin partner. As the founder of sportingWOMEN she has been running sports camps for women for years — which is also where the real athletes in front of the camera came from. She was asked on short notice to make a film for the brand-new Edge 820 — and brought us on board.

Florian was made for this one: a road cyclist and mountain biker himself, with an athletic background from his youth. He could keep pace with the athletes on a bike, camera in hand — and he has the feel for the perfect on-bike perspective. That was exactly the point: not to explain the Edge 820, but to experience it in real race timing. Claim: »Beat yesterday«.

Why we love jobs like this

The scope was immense. We spent a good two or three days just scouting — we picked out the entire landscape and found locations that had never appeared in advertising before. We can say with some pride: this spot also ran on Eurosport — and individual shots, like the bridge at the end that the riders race up and over, showed up in other commercials later on. This was genuine pioneering work.

It was also the first time we pulled off a complex, heavily weather-dependent production at a truly professional level. Working in a controlled environment is one thing — up on a mountain, out in the open, where the weather flips in seconds, is another. A plan B isn't enough there; you need plans C and D. And we had them. I remember one crystal-clear night high up on a mountainside: Simon and I were shooting a timelapse while a cyclist moved up the slope with a Garmin light, drawing a trail of light. Unbelievable. And that job laid the foundation for a collaboration with Garmin that continues to this day.

The job at a glance

Client

Garmin – via partner agency Fiedler Concepts (Monika Fiedler-Proksch)

Product

Garmin Edge Explore 820 – bike computer for road and trail

Year

2016 – our biggest film for Garmin to date

Garmin history

Golf shoot in Dubai (first job) → Varia spot in Bolzano (2015) → Edge 820 on the Arlberg (2016) → ongoing collaboration to this day

Brief

A product spot with a real story instead of a feature demo

Scope

Concept, direction, camera & edit – main film, director's cut and a series of short performance marketing spots (one feature benefit each, in 16:9 & 1:1)

Rollout

Adapted into around eight languages (DE, EN, FR, IT, ES, PT, RU, GR/HR); worldwide with a media budget of around €2.7 million – including Eurosport during the Tour de France

Location

Arlberg – around Lech and Bregenz – legendary road cycling passes, mountain scenery, night shots, drone

Team

B&T Film: Florian Maderebner (concept, director & camera), Manuel Köllner, Simon Zauner, Lisa Polt

Impact

The foundation for a collaboration with the Garmin brand that continues to this day

Who was on set