The online edition of BusinessWeek has a piece about MINI’s new advertising campaign Hammer & Coop. Here’s an excerpt:
Webisodic marketing is part of a crucial trend toward advertisers creating engaging content rather than interruptive ad messages. And MINI has been a leader in this transformation of the ad and marketing business. But the first hurdle to making brand content successful is actually getting the creative idea correct in the first place. Even if the distribution of this idea is executed perfectly, I am arguing that it’s a bad idea and a total miss for this special and successful brand.
[ MINI’s Marketing Misfire
] Businessweek
Interesting points here. However opinions are one thing, results are another. Already I’ve heard from a handful of dealers who are seeing increased customer contact purely from the campaign. How this leads to sales will be interesting to follow. However at this point, with the goal of building the brand and making it more masculine and garnering attention to the product, MINI seems to be succeeding.
Yeah, even a grating commercial gets remembered. Altho I can’t say I’d’ve gone as far as hauling Kaiser Bill back from the dead, their take on the lowest-common-denominator-artistic-merit review is in line with my whole take on H&C, and I wouldn’t have bet the farm on the value and interest that might bleed over from previous efforts such as “The Hire”, or for that matter, any of the marketing undertaken so far. There must be some interest generating, but this injection of visual viagra for a percieved lack of macho, rather than say, a Sean Connery or a Clive Owen, doesn’t make it the kind of “Manliness” I think they’re shooting for. It reminds me too much of “My Mother The Car”, and besides, it’s painfull after four hours or so, just like that other remedy for shortcomings.
BCNU,
Rob in Dago
I agree with several points in the article. Having seen the first few episodes, they feel random and just badly thought out. These 70’s show remakes are so 2 years ago … so yes, this is an unoriginal idea.
Must say that since BSSP took over I have yet to see something “great” from them. They do have a lot to live up to however.
The whole marketing for the R56 from the actual car to the campaigns seem like a mish mosh of ideas …
I tend to agree with the guy from Business Week They (the ad agency) may be trying to mimic/satirize 70’s/80’s bad chase/crime drama, but I don’t think they pull it off. The production values come across as cheap, as opposed to sending up the “cheese” factor of Starsky & Hutch/Knightrider, et al.
If anything, they didn’t go far enough. I dunno. Maybe had BSS&D thrown a Charlie’s Angel’s mash-up/homage/send-up into the mix, it would have worked a little better. After all, even I wore a Farrah Fawcett t-shirt in my youth. Certainly there are enough guys out there who would pay money to see a Drew Barrymore/Pam Anderson/Kate Jackson look-a-like parachute into a MINI, while clad in a nothing but a bikini and a pair of strappy sandals. All the while yelling “freeze”! 😀
It’s a grungy, poorly-conceived promotion, totally mismatched to the Mini.
I understand what he is saying. I can’t totally agree. I have been less than impressed overall with the offerings of BSS&D’s MINI work to date. That said, I think the H&C webisodes work. One word comes to mind…CHEEKY.
My major critisism is that the brit voice work for Coop is effin grating…its the worst upper-crust, snooty-type brittish accent I’ve ever heard. Personally I think coop would have best been suited with the chap who voices the gecko on the Geico commercials.
My $.02
I have to disagree with Mr. Kiley as well. Though I haven’t been a fan of everything MINI Marketing since BSSP took the reigns, I really like this set of webisodes. Sure they’re campy. Sure they’re obviously part <em>Knight Rider</em> part <em>Starsky & Hutch</em>. But that’s the idea. They’re shabby chic and though I can’t verify Mr. Kiley’s age, I think there may be a generation gap at play in his analysis. If you’re critiquing these as actual cinema, then you’ve missed the joke.
As for brand, I think the second aspect of why this works is its involvement of brand self-talk: preaching to the choir, if you will. I can attest to my pre-ownership brand experience as one of self-perpetuating interest. I <em>wanted</em> to know more about the car and would eat up anything I found from the brand. I have a whole collection of brand swag – brochures, collateral, ads pulled from magazines, etc. But I have them not because each piece is brilliant in and of itself, but because it’s all MINI. <em>Hammer & Coop</em>, at least I think, is meant to appeal to people who are <em>already</em> interested in the car – even if only marginally. What this is accomplishing, by what Gabe’s confirming, is helping to push people’s level of interest toward action – toward spending some time on miniusa.com – toward taking a test drive.
Lastly, my favorite aspects of this particular piece of advertising are two items. First, as silly as it is, it’s actually benefit-centric. You actually learn something about the car. The lack thereof is my principle gripe about a lot of today’s advertising. Secondly, it isn’t trying to be all things to all people. It has a fairly simple message of cool and performance that’s aimed at a fairly narrow demographic…that’s very MINI. The car isn’t all things to all people, so neither should it’s advertising. That’s my thought anyway.
I have no qualms about separating the film merits, if any, from whatever redeeming values as advertisement, again if any, from the parody factor as well – I get the joke, I just don’t think it deserves release as a MINI adjunct; however small and short, it’s still a wee movie so I’ll call ’em like I see ’em – I just feel the money thrown at this campaign is ill-spent. They could’ve stood on the sidewalk outside the dealerships in clown suits tossing twenties and looking like idiots for a lot cheaper. Abe Lincoln and the beaver have been telling me in my dreams how much they miss the well-crafted and quirky MINI ads of yore.
>Abe Lincoln and the beaver have been telling me in my dreams how much they miss the well-crafted and quirky MINI ads of yore.
God we’re having similar dreams. Only Abe is telling me my garage door is open… and I have no idea what that beaver is doing…
A couple of others have touched on this, but I’ll chime in as well: this is groan-inducingly unoriginal. We’ve seen a spate of bad ’70s and ’80s remake movies (Starsky & Hutch, Charlie’s Angels, Dukes Of Hazzard, et al.) that were a thin gruel of jokes and even those films postdated other retro pastiche examples (the Beastie Boys did their Sabotage video – what – 12 years ago now? 13?)
It’s all so very tired. The vein has been mined and it’s time to move on.
<blockquote>this is groan-inducingly unoriginal</blockquote>
Funny, I don’t remember seeing Hyundai spoof bad ’80s TV to talk about the Elantra. In the scope of cinema, sure, it’s derivative, but that’s the point. It’s intentionally bad – and for me, that’s why it works. In terms of advertising, the only comparable piece in recent memory I can think of would be the AmEX Jerry Seinfeld / Superman webisodes. Now I’ll admit, those were much more smartly written, but it’s a different product and a different audience.
Are these the best thing ever? No. But I like them none the less.
As an advertising campaign, it seems to me like a lot of wasted money, but as my personal entertainment, I love it. But, maybe that’s why I’m not in marketing.
How many people remember “Where’s the beef?”. That was a terrible commercial, but every one can tell you, even today, what it sold. I had a boss that said, “Just as long as they spell my name right, there is no bad publicity.”
Good call Big Gripper – The Geico Gecko voice would be perfect for Coop. I mean coop has this effeminate voice that makes Kitt sound butch.
I don’t think changing coops voice would redeem it though. I think the series is cringingly unfunny. I was embarrassed when I showed it to my wife. There should be a intro screen graphic that states: Warning: This show contains a middle aged dude with a mustache running around in his skivvies.
Maybe this is effective advertising since I now slag this effort by MINI as much as I can.
P.S. ChristopherW – I agree, Sabotage was hilarious when it did come out, but like you say that was in the last Millenia.
double werd on the cockney accent for coop.
the cheesy catch phrase “so MINI of me.” would sound much better if it was said:
“roight, qwoit MINI uv me, init?”
Hmm… The first time I saw one, I said to myself, “I’ll wait until the DVD comes out…”
I don’t see myself occasionally going back and watching H&C when the DVD comes out like I do the Hire videos from time to time… especially “Star” with Madonna and the M5.
”Webisodes” are hip. MINIs are hip. But MINI’s new webisodic marketing campaign is a dudMr. David Kiley of Business Week, please accept this cordial invitation to kiss the fattest part of my ass.
I just can’t leave this one alone.
The “webisodes” star a talking MINI reminiscent of the 1982-86 TV show Knight Rider.Indeed, the whole serial, titled Hammer & Coop, is meant to conjure feelings of nostalgia for old TV action shows like Starsky & Hutch and MacGyver among MINI’s main audience—baby boomers and the older end of Generation X.
This guy is absolutely out of touch. I know a lot of Baby Boomers, none of them are nostalgic for Knight Rider, MacGyver, A-Team, or Starsky and Hutch. I’m at the far young end of Gen X, and that’s the stuff I’m nostalgic for. And it’s not just me but Gen Y consumers eat this stuff up like it’s schmoo. Just visit your friendly neighborhood Hot Topic and it’s plain to see that ’70s—’80s pop culture is hip.
Were I to get super-duper technical I’d point out to Mr. Kiley that there’s a generation between Gen X and the Baby Boomers, but I guess they just didn’t fit in with his little thesis.
This guy is way too uninformed and unhip to be so smug.