I don’t get it. The purpose of ads is to ATTRACT new customers, not turn them away. They already got the money of the current Mini owners.

I really dont’ get this marketing plan. Isn’t the point of advertising is to lure NEW drivers to your car, not try to sell how cool the car is to current drivers??

wow your wrote the same thing i did at the same time

stupidddd

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that they expect non-mini owners to be able to figure it out for themselves somehow.

It’s to make brand feel more unique

part of marketing and branding is to keep your existing customers satisfied and enthused about your product. This is a clever way for Mini to show their customers that they are a part of a unique group… It’s quite genius if you think about it.

I wonder how long it’s going to take before an industrious Mini owner puts thier special decoder card up for sale on eBay. I’d pay $0 for the opportunity of reading the Mini add!

If they pay me, then I’d read the ad.

Given that owners are often the best leads to new sales, Trudy Hardy, marketing manager of the BMW division, said the strategy is to wrap all its marketing around the Mini community. Owners, she said, perpetuate the next sale. “We want to reward them for their passion for the brand and we are trying to treat them special.” –QUOTE FROM ARTICLE

Mini was cool for a while. Now it’s getting goofy.

Remember kids! Don’t tell ANYONE about your Little Orphan Annie SECRET DECODER RING!

Well played

I wonder how long it will take before someone posts the “secret” here Go leftlane!

I’m not sure how I feel about ads that disenfranchise others and make mini owners seem like stuck up, elitist assholes.

Oh so that is what that email as about. It said to be on the lookout for a black box with SECRET information in it. I haven’t seen it yet though.

I guess they just want to build “excitement”. Secret always excite people.

Mini owners are better looking & smarter than the rest of you dumb, Ugly bastards.

read the “design of everyday things” or “the inmates are running the asylum” to get a better understanding of why MINI might be creating adverts like these. bottom line, for those questioning the effectiveness of a campaign like this you are either a) not in advertising/marketing or b) shouldn’t be.

btw the decoders you get from MINI come in a hollowed out “book” (it’s really just an elaborate box, with 2 “pages” in it). the decoders are your garden variety kids decoders, so yes most non-MINI owners will be able to figure them out. there are three, red lensed glasses for that transformers effect, lenticular, and piece of cardboard with certain areas die cut. it’s not like we’re talking the enigma here.

I guess they want to make it sound like ownig a Mini is exclusive or some **** like that.

Maybe it’s a fun way of announcing a recall?

“Be sure to drink your Ovaltine.”

As a MINI owner, I know that this is basically a sad attempt by the new ad agency of Butler, Shine, Stern, & Partners to be innovative in the future branding of MINI. They are struggling to reach the level of inspriation created by the previous ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky which left MINIUSA to take on the much larger Volkswagen of America account. Which of these companies innovative ads do you remember seeing most recently?
I think that says it all.

I own a MINI and got all that stuff in a box. I think it is still in there. Somewhere. I love my car and other MINI owners are a great group – but I have no freakin idea what this is about, and am too busy to try and find out.