2014 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

MINI recently launched its Corporate Sales Program but not many knew. Typical forms of B2B promotions were just too boring and hard-selling for companies. Besides, flyers and salesmen were just not MINI's style. Our solution was simple: If corporate didn't like to listen, perhaps they preferred to talk. So we gave them something to talk about. We selected three small businesses with personality, digital footprint, and influence; gave each a branded MINI for one month, and challenged each one to promote their business the MINI way. The loudest to make social media noise would win their MINI for 6 months.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

Corporate Sales is something new to MINI, a brand known for its cheeky, provocative, and edgy marketing vibe. To start talking corporate so that companies would take MINI seriously and show interest in the sales program proved daunting - until we found the formula. Instead of employing its usual witty brand-speak, we let the hardcore masters of successful home-grown brands -speak for and in behalf of MINI. We invited influential start-ups like Jado Pado, Careem, and Brownbook to battle it out in what we called the MINI Brandmasters, encouraging them to promote their brand -and MINI- in a month-long competition.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

The Corporate Sales Program, which was nearly unheard of in the corporate world just one month before, was suddenly the talk of the town. Not only was the competition heated among the participants, but the buzz generated from their efforts created enough publicity to get 12 other companies excited and highly interested in joining our wave 2. We counted more than 4400 engagement on social media on top of the more than 2,400 collective votes garnered by the participants. But most of all, we captured more than 1,600 leads out of the program - at zero media cost.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

In a cut-throat industry where success is all that matters, MINI Brandmasters allowed a not-so-normal brand like MINI to resonate with staunch, hardworking stalwarts in the industry. Although MINI knew it had important news for the corporate world to hear, it did not do the talking like most brands would. Instead, using MINI Brandmasters, MINI let corporate individuals spread the news about the corporate sales program within the corporate world themselves. MINI Brandmasters basically redefined the concrete jungle's age-old mantra, "work hard, play hard."