• by Karl Greenberg , February 21, 2008

BMW's Mini division is launching a national campaign that is both a brand effort and a launch for its newest vehicle, the wagonesque Clubman.

The effort includes the first national TV ads since the company launched, as well as print, outdoor, interactive and guerilla efforts.

The campaign, by AOR Sausalito, Calif.-based Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners, follows a teaser effort that launched the "Zig" and "Zag" and "Zug" theme to tout Mini's portfolio of three vehicles--the traditional Mini Cooper, the Mini Convertible and, now, the Clubman. The parallel campaign focusing on the Clubman uses the tag "Mini Clubman. The Other Mini." The new car went on sale this month.

Print ads begin next month, using the Zig, Zag, Zug theme in Rolling Stone and the April issue of Men's Journal. The April issue of The New Yorker will have false covers with Zig And Zag Mini ads. Other magazine buys are in books like Seed and XLR8R. Print includes an insert, actually a 24-page booklet called "The Book of Zug," in magazines like Anthem, Fader, Paper, Paste, Automobile, Esquire, European Car, Motor Trend, Spin and Wired.

Kate Alini, marketing communications manager for the Woodcliff Lake, N.J.-based company, says the media strategy is to start with influencers who might be predisposed to buy a Mini, or who may have wanted one but demurred because they needed more space.

"This time, we are doing two things at once: positioning the new car within the Mini family, wrapping a huge campaign around the Clubman launch, and running creative that speaks to Clubman," she says, adding that efforts running now aim to target a "Mini mindset" demographic "to get people behind the wheel who are early adopters and creative thinkers. We are hoping to appeal to them initially. Then, the last phase of the campaign is a lifestyle campaign; it is more standard and with a broader reach."

TV spots include one with a pinball theme to highlight the car's split rear "barn" doors, with the doors as flippers keeping the ball from dropping through the goal. That ad began running this week on Discovery Channel, Comedy Central, ESPN and A&E.

A second spot, in which the car is envisioned as a young boy's ear infection, will run on TLC, Speed Channel and Spike TV during the same time period. The pinball TV spot is not animated as one might expect. Rather, it uses the real Mini Clubman, with real people in costumes playing game elements. Alini says the ad was filmed in a hockey rink in Prague.

There is also an online gaming element of the campaign. For instance, there will be a downloadable, multi-player Clubmania pinball game for Nintendo's Wii system. The Internet effort includes banner ads on buff book sites, design and social networking Web sites through spring.

After the initial launch push, there will be an outdoor campaign that uses headlines like "Baby Got Back," "Stop Staring at My Boot," "Runs on Irregular" and "Learn to Drive Unstandard."

Billboards will carry ads in New York, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco and print ads will appear in auto enthusiast, sports, and lifestyle magazines like Best Life, Sports Illustrated and Car and Driver. Alini says efforts starting this spring will include airplane banners flying up and down the Florida coast during spring break, and transit station takeovers in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco.