Creative Agency: Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners
An extensive viral campaign is set to accompany the site, with Hammer & Coop making appearances in Second Life and on popular sites like YouTube and MySpace. In addition, advertising content will be available on podcasts and mobile phones (through iPod Infuse and mobile video-on-demand).
Coinciding with the viral campaigns, cinema trailers for the MINI films will be showing in nearly 1900 theaters nationwide, and Hammer & Coop will be hitting the news stands with spreads in Rolling Stone, Maxim, Blender and Stuff magazines.
"For the next six weeks, as the webisodes launch and more of the plot is revealed, audiences will get to know the real story behind Hammer & Coop," said Trudy Hardy, Marketing Manager for MINI USA. "The goal is to effectively engage consumers in the brand by offering an ongoing, interactive dialogue that will keep them coming back for more and interested in future MINI projects."
-- Krisserin "Kerosene Coyote" Canary, associate editor, iMediaConnection
Hammer and Coop -- a series of staggered-release webisodes about a street fighting man and his snooty, talking MINI Cooper -- is a loving tribute to everything great about the late 70s and early 80s: "Knight Rider," "Starsky & Hutch," "The A-Team," "Def Leppard," "Robert Urich" and so much more.
It is not particularly groundbreaking territory, but the execution is so flawless, who cares? The films, reportedly made with a cast and crew of 70, were directed by Todd Phillips, who helmed 2004's "Starsky & Hutch" remake. Phillips has the "Charlie's Angels" action/drama style down pat. Into that he weaves parody in seamlessly. Listing all he did right would just trivialize the accomplishment. Just go and check it out. Wouldn't you rather choose to watch something truly entertaining that creatively features a product than having that product awkwardly squeezed into the frame on your favorite TV show?
-- Patrick V. Barrett, senior user interaction designer, Bazaarvoice.
The Hammer and Coop microsite is just plain awesome. MINI crammed a whole lotta video love into this site and still retained a clean, easy-to-navigate, engaging experience. Sure, MINI bites off of the 80s sitcom parody theme we saw with brands like Bacardi (who featured "Bacardi Guy and Cola" as a Miami Vice-like lady-laying duo), but this online video execution does a much better job of integrating the product and growing an affinity between users and the brand.
The site contains several 3-4 minute high-octane episodes of Hammer and Coop, all of which are professionally produced and come complete with an ogre-like henchman, a smarmy criminal mastermind, nameless adoring bikini-bimbos with a penchant for cleaning cars, cell-phone wielding pool boys, the kinds of daring stunts 7-year-old boys fawn over and, of course, ninjas. As it so happens, I'm still part 7-year old, so I loved every minute of it.
Once done with the videos I joined the ranks of Hammer and Coop's action team by getting my own Action Name ("Blaster Winters") and enlisted my friends to get their own names too via the send-to-a-friend function. Thanks to my friends "Sidewinder Kaboom" and "Jigsaw Hurricane" for your help reviewing the site.
As extras, MINI threw in downloadable screensavers, wallpapers, buddy icons, an upcoming music video and links to a site to build your own MINI…then they tied it together with seamless flash video animation and had all the fixin's for a great brand experience.
What I really love is that they included a release schedule for the upcoming episodes in order to encourage return visits! You don't build brand by knocking people out with one quick whiff of chloroform…it takes repeated exposure. Personally, I would have added a way for users to sign-up and receive email reminders to come back when new episodes are released … but what do I know … I'm still part 7-year-old. VROOM VROOM!
-- Bradley "Blaster Winters" Werner, director of marketing, The Fifth Network
Oh MINI. How do I love thee? You're small, stylish, zippy, and you have that droll, British wit working for you. Just like your new web film series, "Hammer & Coop."
'Tis true, your 2007 model has the same characteristic look as Coopers past; but the devil is in the details, and the H&C web series pays attention - and homage - to every last one. The films' parody of the action genre gives the car a chance to strut its stuff. Throughout each film, the 2007 MINI Cooper, "Coop," narrates and demonstrates its features and benefits in a self-referential way. Meanwhile, "Hammer" mugs as the hapless action hero whose life and love life both depend on and are hindered by his trusty car.
Everything in the campaign is well planned: cross-platform components continue to be unveiled regularly, including print ads, trailers and appearances in Second Life. While buffering, the video even shows a graphic of Hammer practicing his power kick to entertain viewers as they wait for the show to re-start.
Yes, the spots are thoroughly entertaining, but parent company BMW has improved on its first web series ("The Hire") with clever integration and plenty of takeaways to extend the MINI experience beyond web film fanaticism. After watching the most recent episode, I wiped tears from my eyes long enough to take advantage of the send to a friend option, and was pleased to see that even the auto text in this feature was well tuned to the campaign.
For a little car, the team at BSS&P are setting the bar pretty high. Cheers!
-- Jodi Harris, managing editor, Driving Interactive