MINI: "50.000 MINI FRIENDS" Promo / PR Ad by DEA Production

Category: Automotive and Transport
Advertiser: MINI
Product/Service: FACEBOOK PAGE
Executive Creative Director: Maurizio Mazzanti
Client Director: Federico Ceccarelli
Associated Creative Director: Lorenzo Colombo
Account Supervisor: Veronica Rota
Director: Davide Enrico Agosta (DEA Production)
Choreographer: Daniela Gorella
Flash Developer: Gabriele Tamburini (G9Lab)
Facebook API Developer: Daniele Gibertoni (Codebox)
Media placement: Facebook Casting App - Facebook Post On MINI Page - January 31st 2011
Media placement: Facebook Live Streaming - Facebook Post On MINI Page - February 19th and February 2nd
Media placement: Online Application - Facebook Post On MINI Page - March 23rd 2011
Summary of the Campaign
Mini wanted to celebrate the achievement of 50,000 fans on its Facebook page. The main value of Facebook is to let brands interact with customers and brand lovers, so we decided to move that interaction to a physical level.
We created a video story whose actors are people who work at Mini in Italy and who were fans of the car. The fans were recruited with an online and offline casting. Through Facebook online casting, we received more than 500 applications and we chose 10 actors and actresses at the end of a full day casting with 50 people in the remarkable and private Martini Terrace location in Milan.
The interactive video story was located on a website (http.//50000friends.mini.it) - that simulated a Facebook private profile of the player. The website was presented to automotive and lifestyle press and a huge number of Mini fans and bloggers focused on marketing and advertising.
During the presentation, every fan who acted in the video story was awarded with a Mini car for one week.
A press release was emailed to all blog and web magazines focused on Facebook. The website was launched on March 23rd. In the first 10 days, 3,600 consumers visited and played with application.
The Situation
Facebook is still very popular in mainstream media and blogospheres. What brands often do is try interact through that social network.
But on the other hand, MINI lovers are less and less exposed to traditional advertising.
The Goal
The goals were to create visibility through mainstream media, blogosphere and Facebook.
The target audience were MINI fans who are twenty-something, individualists or exhibitionists, with a strong show-off attitude and who are interested in television talent shows like "Italia's Got Talent".
The Strategy
Produce an interactive video application with the Mini marketing team and brand lovers recruited from the Facebook page as actors.
Execution
First step was to create the online casting application on Facebook and spread it through: www.facebook.com/MINI.Italia
In the meantime, we recruited social media users who are very active on the web and interested the Mini brand, with the aim to make them participate in the casting and possibly the shooting.
We invited journalists to the shooting.
The fans who acted were awarded with the car during the launch conference and they had a remarkable reaction in front of journalists. It helped them to participate at a very unconventional conference.
Documented Results
In the first 10 days - analytics:
- 3,600 consumers visited and played with application
- Posts by Mini Italia about the initiative: 19
- Posts by Mini Italia fans about the initiative: 60
- Total comments on Posts: 195
- Total likes on Posts: 805
- The application: http://50000friends.mini.it was shared on Facebook 399 times
- The application earned 104,768 free impressions on Facebook
- The application earned 196 engagement actions
- Username and password to login for analytics in "Confidential Information"