Tag archives: mini

MINI: fake is the new real

MINI is a cool brand, which invests a lot in presenting itself associated to lifestyle, art, innovation and music. I admire the way they communicate and the moderate bravery of their web efforts. A few weeks we saw the Hammer & Coop idea (a sort of parody on Knight Rider meeting Starsky & Hutch), now from Germany, Markus tells me about Def Mini Records, a virtual (fake) record label launched by the agencies Interone Worldwide and .start. The site hasn’t got any reference to MINI (just the name of the label) but features a series of emerging (?!) bands who don’t sing about peace, love or life, but simply sing to celebrate the new MINI: it’s reliable, it’s safe, it’s fun to drive. Discover the new stars Runflat and The Disc Brakes, and meet the Terence Trust.

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Meet Mini, Hammer & Coop

MINI Usa has recently launched a new website very much focus on advertainment. It’s called Hammer & Coop and it features a story which is something between David Hasselhoff in Knight Rider and Starsky & Hutch. It’s all about video, with a series of webisodes starring the MINI (Coop) and an improbable hero (Hammer). Together with the webisodes, the site also presents an “Action name generator”, which is a tool that tells you what will be the perfect name for you and your partner to star in the story. Mine would be Mindhunter Zugger… I quite like it Very well designed (the site) and directed (the episodes) the whole thing is quite fun to watch, but I’m not sure I will check back to see what’s going to happen in the next episodes… but maybe this is because I’m a woman and, you know, cars aren’t really something I live for…

MINI Brother is watching you

You can think of Orwell’s Big Brother or, as you prefer, of Dick’s Minority Report. Whatever the case, it’s no longer science fiction, it’s real. MINI Usa has launched a scary (sorry I must say it) outdoor campaign targeted at MINI owners. In cities such as Chicago and Miami they have installed digital billboards who are able to receive identification messages from the MINI’s passing by. As the car is tagged with information about the owner, the billboard is able to recognize the driver and greet him/her with a personalized message. This campaign sets a new frontier in 1to1 marketing, but it’s also important to say that the drivers involved in this promotion actually opted-in to be part of the game. Fools or curious it’s impossible (yet) to say. However the campaign is rising comments and polemics not only for the extremely personal yet public relationship MINI wants to establish with its clients, but also for the potential risks of such campaign in terms of driver distraction and road safety.

The MINI metro station

A very nice outdoor campaign created by Jung von Matt/Limmat (Switzerland) for MINI. found at Coloribus.

Make sure it’s a Mini

Can you spot a fake Mini? This is the challenge launched in the “Make sure it’s a Mini adventure” advertising campaign. As reported on New Media Age, MINI is running an integrated push in the UK to target 24 to 40 years old men. The advertising concept, based on comic ads, has been created by WCRS, while Meme Digital took care of the online creativity. A micro-site collects traffic from rich media ads on entertainment, news and men’s lifestyle sites. A series of games challenge visitors’ MINI knowledge: for example, you can test yourself in the “Real or fake audio challenge” or in “Two stripes white don’t make it right”. Videos and a downloadable guide to spot fake MINIs complete the site.

Mini runs on Messenger (why?)

Mini is running an online campaign targeting MSN Messenger users. On a special Italian MSN’s section users can download pictures, backgrounds and special MINI emoticons. As explained on Pubblicit� Italia the campaign is online since one month, about 25000 users have visited the website and 5.500 emoticons have been downloaded. Marco Makaus, director at Mini Italia said that the brand wanted to use a stilish tool like Messenger which allows a direct and funny communication among young users. Basically, the message is that communicating with MSN Messenger is as cool as driving a MINI. Looking at the website they have created and analysing the whole initiative I tend not to agree with MINI’s branding idea. I feel like they are missing a point, what they are offering isn’t very interesting and, from my perspective doesn’t add anything to the brand which is indeed stilish and cool (btw I wish I had one…).

Rich media for MINI

iMediaConnection presents in its Creative Spotlight a brief case study of the recent MINI rich media campaign. With the use of rich media, MINI and its agency WCRS engaged the consumer and creatively delivered the attributes of the Cooper all within smaller ad units.