Flippin' Amazing Stunt In Mini Ad

The Mini Cooper is a British style icon. Everyone from movie stars to musicians have squeezed into the cheeky little motor. But the ultimate compact car is also famous for being a dinky daredevil, tearing up the streets of Turin in The Italian Job and thundering round the rally circuit. Now it's the car performing the world's most amazing stunts...with a Frenchman behind the wheel.

The Mini Cooper is arguably Britain's most famous motorised export, a plucky little vehicle that conquers impossible feats with some old-fashioned ingenuity and a stiff upper lip. But now the French have gotten their hands on the vehicle and made it all their own.

No, they haven't filled the tiny back seat with baguettes and brie, they've turned it into a gravity-defying super car capable of pulling of world-first stunts.

After hours of mechanical magic, the car was handed over to Guerlain Chicherit, who took the car to the ski resort of Tignes and performed the first-ever backflip in a car.

The clip follows on from Mini's teaser, launched in early January. Launched three days ago, the full clip has earned 1.4 million views and 89,000 shares.

While it might pain us Brits to praise the French for anything, we are impressed by this epic feat of dare-devilry. Vive La Mini!

Mini Attempts World's First Car Backflip

The Mini is one of Britain's cultural icons. Appearing in the London Olympics' opening ceremony, the cheeky little runabout has been driven by our best musicians and starred in some of our best movies. But now a Frenchman has got his hands on one of our beloved cars and is making it behave in a most un-gentlemanly way.

The classic Mini was an icon of British cool, whether it was packed (snugly) with The Beatles or scooting Michael Caine across the silver screen. But all that is ruined now that Guerlain Chicherit is behind the wheel, attempting to pull off the first-ever unassisted backflip.

Mini's latest ad stars the French stunt driver putting a suped-up version of the compact car through its paces, only it's not so compact any more. Chicherit's vehicle is one-of-a-kind, looking like a monster truck that borrowed a Mini's clothes, despite them being way too small.

But don't judge this book by its cover, this vehicle is built for one purpose only, to sprint hell-for-leather at a ramp, flip end-over-end in the air and land safely.

Red Bull attempted a similar stunt in 2009, without success. Mini's teaser shows Chicherit and his Franken-Mini taking to the air gracefully and...well, we don't really know, the ad ends at this point. 

The teaser, by GRAVI-T, has garnered nearly 606,000 views since it was launched 5 days ago. There's no clue as to when the full clip might be released, so Chicerit, and his fans, will be left hanging.

Never Be Normal - Be Amazing, With Mini

 

Alarm going off. Marmalade on toast. The morning commute. Sitting in meetings at work. These are all very normal activities that we are especially reminded of on a Monday morning. 

Dare to be different is the message Mini is selling in their new ad. Basically, why do all that boring work stuff when you can go to a rave, drive along with a giant rubber duck on your car roof, or hula-hoop on-stage at a nightclub?

The ad begins with the word 'normal' being flashed across the screen, followed by clips of supposedly routine activities. To help us, the narration tells us various definitions of the word 'normal', such as 'familiar' and 'safe'. 

With the assertion 'but normal can never be amazing...', the ad then breaks into all the 'un-normal' things we should be doing, such as sitting on some kind of rocket chair, being lifted into the air by helium balloons and standing on the side of a Mini, speeding along on two wheels.

This feel-good ad finishes up with the text 'Who would ever want to be normal?' and the words 'Not Normal' cover the remainder of the mesmerising clips. It was released 5 days ago and has been shared 16,504 times, with over 65,500 views.

Mini's new ad has perked me up on this grey Monday morning, but has also succeeding in making me feel a bit too normal and boring. Maybe I should get a Mini and make my life more exciting? Although I'm not sure how abnormal having a Mini is, I see them pretty much everywhere.

The Britalian Job Sees Minis Race Through London In Olympic Adventure

The stadium is built, the opening ceremony planned and the athletes are ready - it looks like nothing could stop the London Olympic Games. That is unless someone steals all the gold medals. The fiends!

But don't worry, luckily three of Britain's most loved icons are here to save the day. A new campaign from Mini called 'The Britalian Job' has just been released to celebrate the car brand's partnership with Team GB and Paralympics GB.

The new video starts with the winners medals being stolen by a mysterious figure on a motorcycle. Daley Thompson dispatches a crack team to get them back and the trio speed off in their special London 2012 edition Minis to chase down the thief.

After a chase reminiscent of The Italian Job, the team unmask the bike-riding brigand to be... model and car enthusiast Jodie Kidd. But wait, the team reveal themselves to be medal-winning Olympians James Cracknell, Matthew Pinsent and Jonathan Edwards. The best of British recover the stolen gold and ride back to HQ for a celebratory full English breakfast.

The ad was shot by director Phil Churchward, lead director of BBC's Top Gear. With 64,000 views in just 3 days, the film has been quick off the mark, and with nearly 4,000 shares, the clip looks set to become a winner.

The ad may be lacking jokes about blowing the "bloody doors off", but it's certainly blown us away.

Mini Offers One Lucky Guy The Test Drive Of His Life For Latest Ad

Sounds like a pretty ridiculous prize, right? Well it would appear dreams really do come true when Mini is involved. 

As part of their latest ad campaign, Mini offered one lucky winner, aka Matthew Foster from Portland, Oregon the chance to customise his very own dream test drive. 

Matthew was asked to give 6 words to describe the test drive of his life. Who would have thought he would have picked stewardess, salt flats, paratroopers, sushi and Falconer. Probably not Mini? Anyhow, a deal is a deal, I guess.

So, away they went in some pretty impressive style. They somehow featured all of the above-listed in this racy 2-minute advert. 

The ad features a rather sporty looking version of Mini's latest coupe model which actually sounds like a sports car in all honesty. The boy racers will no doubt love this one. 

Now, I don't want to give it all away, so I suggest you sit back and take in this action-packed ad below. 

Pedal to the metal. 

The Future Of Digital Advertising Is Offline

One of the many lessons I have learned during a career working in digital is that when something becomes a trend it's already too late to reap any meaningful advantage.

To succeed in this most dynamic of industries you have to stay ahead of the curve, develop superior insight and position your brand to take advantage of a trend before the market becomes saturated and a competitive advantage becomes the norm.

I like to call it "Innovating at the Speed of Thought".  There's no time for in-depth strategic analysis, you have to predict, act and then learn.. turning what used to be a conscious process into something far more instinctive.

A great example is the latest MINI Getaway campaign, which has moved on from its initial game-board in Stockholm and is now set to take Tokyo by storm. 

While rival brands have been running unilateral online competitions, MINI has taken its core brand attributes and turned them into a game. 

MINI Getaway in Tokyo - launch video

A real game, played out on the real world, using digital tools to augment the game mechanics, enhancing the campaign's disruptive impact and enabling the social distribution of artefacts, which attract more players to the game.

Covering a playing area of 240 square miles, MINI Getaway in Tokyo, began tomorrow on December 3 and is due to run for 9 days, during which time contestants much capture a virtual MINI and then run as fast as they can out of its orbit to prevent other potential takers from swiping it. 

Players within 50 metres of the keeper can snatch the virtual MINI away and so move from being hunter to prey. The rules are simple - whichever player holds the MINI at the end of the competition, wins a real MINI Coupe.

MINI Getaway in Stockholm - case study

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