Calling all Countries
How much literature, fine art, and theatre can you fit into a BMW Mini Cooper? Enough to cover the globe.
BMW pulled out all the stops for a Mission Mini mystery adventure that started with a detective novel and ended with a car chase through Barcelona. The fall 2002 campaign revved Mini’s reputation in 17 countries, reinforcing the car’s international character and raising the bar for commissioned art in promotions.
It began with a mystery, written for BMW by Scottish novelist Val McDermid. The story, set in Barcelona, began the tale of stolen paintings and detective Sam Cooper’s stolen Mini, then left readers hanging. That set the stage for detective teams to solve the mystery and recover the paintings.
Twenty-one teams from 17 countries traveled to Barcelona for three days of sleuthing as they competed to solve the mystery first. Four-man teams scoured the city in Minis — each with a national flag painted on its roof. The 21 teams visited scenes of the crime and questioned the book’s characters, played by actors stationed in 44 spots taken from the novel.
Consumers vied for a spot on their country’s team. In the U.S., an Internet competition asked, “What would you do to go on this adventure?” Entrants sent essays, photos, even films; BMW chose four winners, two of them Mini owners “and fanatics,” says Communications Manager Michael McHale, and two of them merely adventure buffs “who thought it would be cool.” One created a dossier of himself as a detective, and two made campy spy films showing their mettle. (BMW divisions in some countries ran McDermid’s novella as a magazine insert. U.S. consumers downloaded it from mini.com.)
The four raced against the other teams to track down six collages by Peter Halley, commissioned for the campaign. (The artwork, which features Mini and Barcelona motifs, goes on loan to a European museum this spring.) When the German team solved the puzzle, coordinators called all other players to rush to the Barcelona container docks, where a staged car chase and confrontation wrapped up the story. The winners got a year’s lease on a Mini; all the players got bragging rights.
It was an expensive production for an audience of 80, but the p.r. pickup and buzz in chat rooms showed the campaigns’ real reach. Mini even got mileage from its U.S. entries, posted on its Web site for several months.
“Mini has a very healthy fan base,” says McHale. The contest was “a great way to reinforce the Mini brand with potential customers” and owners.
The marketing staff at BMW’s Bremen, Germany, headquarters handled the effort in-house with an assist from a German logistics firm and p.r. shop Ketchum in Barcelona; Rubenstein Communications, New York City, handled p.r. for BMW of America. BMW divisions, including its U.S. office in Woodcliff Lakes, NJ, paid its own portion of the estimated $3 million to $5 million effort; the divisions coordinated by phone.
The production was easy because “Mini is inherently interesting,” says McHale. “It’s anthropomorphic — it is such a character it comes to life. I feel sorry for marketers who have boring brands to work with.”
