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April 19, 2004 - Strategy Media Archive
Best Media Plan

Best plan overall: Runner-up/Best use of multiple media: Winner
MINI chases 'cool' without a true demo in sight

Agency/media operation

Gaggi Media Communications

Client

MINI Canada (a division of BMW Canada)

Brand

MINI

Budget

$3 million

Media used

Television

Out-of-home

Magazine

Cinema

Newspaper

Radio

"Brandshaper media"

Timing

January to December, 2003

Media team

Mike Power, VP and account director;

Laura Gaggi, president;

Cindy Worsley, account planner/buyer;

Vilma Ditata, broadcast manager;

Kirk Glendenning, account planner and buyer, Gaggi Media Communications

The background

The decision came down on Dec. 23. Gaggi had won the business after an exciting review with BMW. Initial plans were needed by Jan. 15. The Toronto Auto Show was around the corner and sales were primed to get started.

The first task was to understand the way individuals buy cars and the process by which they seek out information. Specifically, the way a car gets on the radar, moves to the shopping list, survives the short list and finally gets purchased. Next we - meaning the client, media and creative - needed to understand who was buying the MINI. And even more importantly, who did we want to buy it?

MINI was in year two. It had already been successfully launched to the "cool" set. High initial demand for the car had been met and sales goals for year one were reached.

We needed to expand the target, which we finally pinned as Opinion Leaders and Influencers, Coupe Performance (Under the Hood guys) and Modern Mainstream.

All the media chosen had to be reflective of the very cool, fun and mischievous prankster otherwise known as the MINI.

But without a true demographic in sight, the challenge was: how to plan effective media against a philosophical target group.

The plan

Using PMB, NADbank, MicroBBM, and existing MINI research as guides, we constructed a "lifestyle media plan." Demographic performance was used solely as currency in dealing with media, but terms like "adults 25-49, male skew" had very little meaning in our plan.

We began by mapping out the typical day in the life of our target group. What emerged was that this highly urban target lived in a world of "soundbytes." They were highly active and interacting with media only when they chose to. We call these people "appointment-users" of media.

Mapping out the individual lifestyle habits of our target, we realized the only chance we had at breaking through their short attention spans was by using a multimedia approach. Unlike selling cars to an older group, we could not sit back and rely on heavy levels of TV and newspaper advertising. Nor did we have the budget to do so. Our media needed to work in tandem with bold creative messaging and stand out.

All activities culminated in June, and so did the highest sales in MINI history. Media was not the only thing happening at that time, but it worked hand-in-hand with all other efforts to deliver a highly successful year.

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