Bill Hunt Public Relations

To launch the new MINI we worked with guerrilla marketing agency Cunning to develop a PR, events and media targeting strategy. This involved a series of events that would allow people to interact with the car and see its fun, adventurous and risky personality.

We put cars on roofs of cinemas, driving up walls, providing the music at festivals, leading Gay Pride in fetish gear and linking with the Ministry of Sound in Ibiza. MINI was seen as part of the fun rather than a corporate sponsor.

To evaluate the campaign we came up with a methodology which gave a 'cost per impact' allowing an assessment of PR alongside other marketing disciplines. This was the first time a guerrilla and ambient media project had been comprehensively evaluated and it allowed MINI to prove the success of this unconventional marketing method.

With a target reach of 21 million, the actual reach resulted was 61.2 million.

"The MINI launch was definitely the biggest news story in motoring this year … it has been the most innovative marketing campaign for the launch of a car I have ever seen."
Financial Times