MINI salute with max visibility

International car brand MINI organized a digital outdoor campaign called'Not Normal' as a tribute to MINI owners and make them feel special. The campaign, organized and handled by iris worldwide agency, went live for a week in London on digital outdoor screens. The essence of the campaign was the'salute', the legendary MINI tradition, where MINI owners would greet each other with a flash of the headlights whenever they passed each other - an acknowledgement of a shared passion for exciting, creative living. Consequently, the agency resurrected the tradition of the MINI salute but with a twist. The salutes were given using digital screens and real time uploading of salutes.  The idea was all about celebrating the MINI drivers' community.

The biggest differentiating factor of the campaign was the usage of the digital screens. For one week, all MINI drivers passing by the 5 giant consecutive digital posters down London's Cromwell Road were greeted with personal and real-time salutes. The campaign was designed with tailored technical platform and specially trained spotters. The messages were tailored as per the colors of the passing MINI. Along with putting owners on posters in real time, drivers were also rewarded for interacting with treats such as a free car wash, free petrol or flowers to score brownie points with their other halves.

The creative of the campaign required concise, cheeky, entertaining and informative copies which at the same time dynamically drew the audience. The idea was to give the car owner an overwhelming feeling of being special. Hence some cheeky messages were designed to bring a smile, such as 'Who da man? You da man and your Paceman, man' and 'Is it true what they say about big boots? Big storage!!!'
To accomplish the whole campaign, the highly trained and eagle eyed spotters were required to sit an exam proving they could identify each of the range from a distance in super quick time, to activate the 3 ipads that triggered the salutes. Thus it was quite a challenging campaign as executing the idea was a technical first. The agency had to do a lot of trial and error.
  
"The idea was a simple one - update the tradition of saluting oncoming MINI drivers. The execution was technically complex. In order to recognize each of the ever-growing range in real time, with bespoke messaging, across 5 consecutive posters we had to build an app. It had to take into account traffic flows and 3G wireless internet connections. Brand CI had to be adhered to in real time, matching every model (including old classics) and every color of MINI it was available in, to match it to the driver we were saluting,” explained Shaun Mcilrath, Regional Creative Director, iris worldwide.

Over 25 different salutes were written to engage and communicate a simple message over 5 sites and half a mile of dual carriageway. In addition, in just 1 week, MINI saluted 1,942 individual MINI drivers.