Following MINI + Vice to All the Wrong Places

The first MINI campaign I fell in love with was Profero London's "White Rabbit" execution in 2006. For me, it first positioned the iconic car as a symbol of whimsical pursuit. While Louis Vuitton positions travel as a single moment of static luxury, MINI is all about the spirit of the move, with chase starring both as adventure and game.

BSUR Amsterdam gave this approach an exciting new angle with ROCKETMAN, tying MINI back to its roots while imbibing us with a strong whiff of nostalgia -- not the stuffy kind, something more akin to patriocy. It also wed MINI's past to our future.

I talked to ECD Jason Schragger a few months ago about where MINI's headed and what it takes to build a MINI idea. He provided a vague sketch of what came next: they wanted to take the idea of exploring to cities around the world. Not cities everybody knows (New York, London, Paris), but places nobody thinks about. Then, instead of using the resulting ads to talk to those places, the ads about those places will be used to talk to us living in New York, London and Paris.

In short, work that makes people living in dream travel destinations dream of traveling again.

Those are the roots of the "All the Wrong Places" campaign, whose video manifesto you see above. Like MINI on Facebook for the chance to become a co-pilot. Here are the uncut TV executions:

Humor me ››

The Mini Rocketman Concept

This mixed-media video combines live action with 2d/3d animation, motion graphics, stock footage and visual effects - all in a way that serves the story and builds something inside of you: the seed that makes you a lover of Mini, from one breathtaking sight to the next. It's elegant work.

By director Mischa Rozema for agency BSUR and production firm PostPanic. The shoot went down in Amsterdam and Munich, taking four weeks.

Via.

It's Like Capture the Flag ... But with Strangers!

This idea's so off the chains that it's terrifying how awesome it is. Jung von Matt's iPhone application-cum-living-game, Mini Getaway Stockholm, is gonna have at least a couple of die-hard people shooting up out of their office cubicles at work and making a run for it with no apparent explanation. Meanwhilst, all the cool kids in town will burst into spontaneous dash, like an improv mob of purse-snatchers or very-late-for-train-goers.

We've arrived at a time when it's strategically and technologically possible to do I Love Bees-caliber work on a more easily executable and less commitment-heavy scale. This is exciting!

Only wish I could play, though I'd probably just be good for about 2.6 days before saying screw it and letting my virtual Mini slide, ballerina-like, into the ownership of the nearest digital gamestalker.

Such is life. There will be other spoils of adverwar. Consider.

(Thanks @contagiousmag for being a share bear.)