The Brief

The Mini is one of the world’s most customisable cars, with literally millions of custom combinations. Our task was to make New Zealanders aware of the sheer mindboggling ways you can customise a Mini.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

Introducing the world’s first Carmonica. A car covered with over 300 harmonicas. An idea that pushed Mini’s customization promise to the fullest. We’ve all seen custom sound systems before but not like this. Two aspects guided the construction; the overall aesthetic, to make the Carmonica as eye-catching as possible when on the street. And airflow, to ensure the harmonicas were highly audible when the car was moving. Then we took it to the streets of urban Auckland. The Carmonica live experiential concept was supported by a TV commercial and PR, all directing people to an online customisation experience.

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

The story was widely seen on the national news media, but didn’t stop there. Carmonica spread across the globe through motoring sites, car blogs and Buzz Feed where it caught the eye of James May from the BBC TV series, Top Gear. Now the world’s most watched car show is producing a piece on the Carmonica. The idea reached a third of all New Zealanders and since launching, test drives have doubled and visits to the Mini website have grown by over 800%.

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

Mini is one of the coolest brands in the world so people expect the brand to engage in completely unexpected ways. The Carmonica idea was a playful testament to Mini's infinite number of custom options, as well as a unique hook for dealers at the Mini showroom to get potential customers behind the wheel.