From today’s Adage:
>Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners won the $100,000 grand prize in the 26th annual Kelly Awards today, taking the top honor for its Mini USA “Covert” campaign.
>The Butler Shine campaign for BMW’s Mini was designed to build brand evangelism among existing customers by running ads with coded messages — decipherable only by 150,000 Mini owners who were sent decoder kits in the mail. The agency got another Kelly in the best full-page campaign category for a separate Mini effort, “Shared Space.” The Kelly wins makes for an especially good week around Butler Shine offices; the “Covert” campaign was also honored at last Thursday’s Effie Awards.
Congrats to all at BSSP who worked on this campaign. Job well done! You can read more here:
[ Mini USA ‘Covert’ Campaign Wins Grand Prize ] Adage
Ironically the MINI USA’s previous agency, Crispin Porter & Bogusky (who left the brand in 2005) was passed over for the top award but managed to score a couple wins in smaller categories
‘Covert’ is right. At first, I couldn’t figure out why they were targeting existing customers with such a complex campaign.
Obviously it worked to win new business AND awards.
Congratulations, BSSP!
The website says that buzz about the MINI brand increased 75%. That seems like a win for MINI. More people talking about the cars is good, no?
Now was this the one where the clues led to the “awsomeness of small” webpage? I’d never heard of it referred to as the “covert” campaign. An in-house term, maybe? Or is there anouther one out there I’m unaware of?
<blockquote>Now was this the one where the clues led to the “awsomeness of small” webpage?</blockquote>
Yes, as well as a couple of others. That little medallion is one of my favorite bits of MINI swag.
Congrats folks! It really says a lot about MINI as well as BSSP that their brand is not only strong, but innovative in a way that leads the rest of the advertising industry forward. That they’ve been able to do consistently groundbreaking and award-winning work for the brand says as much about the savvy marketing folk at MINI USA as it does about the creativity at BSSP. Any ad person can tell you that no matter how creative the agency is, many times the client is its own worst enemy. MINI is obviously doing it right, so congratulations all around.
It always helps to have a good product.
I tossed out the decoder package when I got it as I dislike excess clutter (and didn’t have the patience to follow-up on the ads). Is there an article that has photos of all the ads, an explanation of what they’d look like decoded, and a summary of what the “Mini Swag” was at the end of the campaign? I don’t regret tossing the box. Just curious.
<blockquote>…many times the client is its own worst enemy.</blockquote>
That is my hell, daily.
New MINI Clubman ads are starting. Check out two vidios on <a href="http://www.topspeed.com" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.topspeed.com</a>.
<a href="http://www.topspeed.com/cars/car-news/mini-clubman-announcement-ar37715.html" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.topspeed.com/cars/car-news/mini-clubman-announcement-ar37715.html</a>
“MiniMeat” and “Birds vs. Rocket turtle”.
<blockquote>That is my hell, daily.</blockquote>
LOL!
Mustn’t…bite…hand…that…feeds…me!!!
I still think CP+B did a much better job handling the MINI marketing than BSSP has done so far. I think CP+B had a much better grasp of the whole MINI “thing” and their “viral” ads were simply fantastic.
Never really cared for the “Hammer & Coop” work, but at least BSSP seems to be with the program.
Too bad money ultimately lured CP+B away from MINI and now they are stuck in a sour grapes relationship with VWOA.
<blockquote>New MINI Clubman ads are starting. Check out two vidios on <a href="http://www.topspeed.com.." rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.topspeed.com..</a>.”MiniMeat” and “Birds vs. Rocket turtle”.</blockquote>
Welcome to 06/11 on the MotoringFile:
<a href="http://motoringfile.com/2007/06/11/teaser-mini-clubman-commercial/" rel="nofollow ugc">http://motoringfile.com/2007/06/11/teaser-mini-clubman-commercial/</a>
😉 😛
Kudos to Mini and its ad agency. I didn’t see the brilliance in this campaign… the previous agency did a bang-up job and was clearly superior… this was sophomore slump… but they won!
The CP+B folks had amazing vision for the initial MINI marketing campaign. It was like no other car related advertaising I have ever seen before.