Mini World Record

Background

MINI is the world’s most famous small car. But it is exactly that: small. For drivers who wanted additional space, the Countryman changed everything – it was a model with enough room to suit everyone.

Profero were challenged to ensure that at least one million people saw and engaged with new MINI Countryman before the launch of any above-the-line activity.

Idea

The agency wanted to create a digital first, a pioneering idea that would be true to the spirit of MINI.

To allow people to appreciate the Countryman’s generous size, an installation was created which encouraged and allowed people to take part in a world-record attempt to cram in as many people into the car as possible. But digitally.

Fibreglass models of the car were placed in shopping centres and train stations of eight major UK cities.

New technology enabled passers-by to create video footage of themselves in onsite video booths, upload the footage and immediately see it projected onto the inside of the car, as if they were packed in there with many others.

They could share the footage on their Facebook pages and the ongoing story of how many people were inside the car was updated live at MINI.co.uk and on MINI’s own Facebook page.

This campaign not only demonstrated great through-the-line strategic thinking, bringing the real and digital worlds closer together to create an experience that people could see, touch, engage with and share, but the complexity of the installations also required technological innovation that broke boundaries.

Results

5,672 people crammed into the replica car up and down the UK and a 30-second walk-by became, on average, a seven-minute engagement; and the target of 1 million people engaging with the MINI Countryman was surpassed with 1.6 million being reached.

Furthermore, all Countryman cars in the UK in 2010 were sold out at launch date.

Our Thoughts

Creativity in advertising always used to be about the artistic interpretation of a message. Through the filter of an art director and/or a writer, a brand could talk directly to millions. But in the digital age, the inventor and the scientist are as important as the artist. This idea is a case in point. It depends utterly on the technology being able to deliver that moment of spontaneous pleasure when you see yourself on the inside of the car, squished up among countless others.

I can quite believe that this took a lot of tecchy types a lot of work to pull off. And that’s one of the ways in which advertising is changing. There’s a new kind of creative person emerging, the creative geek. Or what David Harris at Wunderman calls ‘the creek’.

This is a creeky idea and we love it for its creekiness.