MINI Launches Biggest US Ad Campaign Amid Small Car Safety Concerns

Posted by Dale Buss on February 6, 2014 11:22 AM

Amid heightened concern about the safety of very small cars, MINI USA is launching itsbiggest-ever marketing campaign in support of the latest iteration of its Cooper model, the 2014-model Hardtop.

The BMW-owned marque has done a great job of establishing itself in the minds of US consumers who want a small, sporty and chic vehicle. MINI also has gotten great reviews by American consumers on quality and dealer relations. By contrast, the Mercedes-Benz-owned Smart car brand has suffered.

In its new campaign, MINI attempts to leverage that brand equity with a fresh creative approach based on an old theme, and unprecedented media spend.

The first spot, "Bullheaded," now available on MINI's YouTube channel, revisits a previous approach by MINI: a bulldog inspects a MINI inside and out, approvingly, and as the car drives off the viewer sees some of what's new about the 2014 MINI Cooper Hardtop, including adaptive headlamps. The car also is a bit taller and longer than previous models.

It's also flooding US media with the campaign over the next several weeks through TV, billboards and radio advertising with major digital and social media support.

"I think it's fair to say this is the most anticipated launch in the history of the MINI in the US," Tom Salkowsky, head of MINI's USA marketing, told MarketingDaily.com. The featured redesign, he said, "represents a natural evolution of the model; we are building upon iconic design and that is something consumers value. But it captures modern technological advances."

Meanwhile, however, there's greater cause for concern that the safety of MINI-class automobiles isn't up to snuff. That makes sense in a basic way: The smaller the mass of a vehicle in a collision with another vehicle or fixed object, the greater the chances of structural damage and harm to driver and passengers no matter how compliant the car is with federal safety standards.

A new test by the respected Insurance Institute for Highway Safety underscored such concerns recently. Only one of what the institute termed a "minicar" out of 11 tested, the Chevrolet Spark, was able to achieve an acceptable rating in its front crash test, "making these tiny vehicles the worst-performing group of any evaluated so far," the group said.

MINI wasn't among those tested; the failed models included the Fiat 500, Mazda 2, Kia Rio and Honda Fit. Some of these cars aren't typically considered in the same market segment as Mini and Smart because they're a tad larger.

But in any event, surely the timing wasn't great for the model that arguably is the flagship of America's mini-car fleet, giving MINI something extra to overcome with its new ad campaign.