MINI CLUBMAN MARKETING CAMPAIGN WINS GOLD EFFIE AWARD IN THE CATEGORY OF AUTOMOTIVE

Prestigious Award Honors Marketing Communications Ideas that Work

Woodcliff Lake, NJ – June 8, 2009… In recognition and in honor of marketing communications ideas that work, “Zug. The Other MINI,” the marketing campaign developed for the MINI Clubman launch, was awarded with a Gold Effie Award during the 41st annual Effie Gala held at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York last week.

“Congratulations to the entire MINI marketing team and our agency Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners for winning the Gold Effie Award in the automotive category,” said Jim McDowell, Vice President of MINI USA. “Through creative marketing and strategy the ‘Zug’ campaign effectively communicated the unique character of the MINI Clubman to the masses and helped make its launch a tremendous success.”

In launching the Clubman, MINI had the opportunity to yet again disrupt the US market and it was critical that people understood the Clubman to be a completely new concept with distinctive design, not just a slightly bigger Cooper hardtop. The core idea of the campaign was to position the Clubman as its own breed and a very different MINI: odd, enigmatic and polarizing. A new member of an already eccentric family.

The campaign theme developed from the idea that when MINI launched the Cooper hardtop, it zigged. With the convertible, it zagged. What do you do when you've already zigged and zagged? Simple, you Zug. And the Clubman is definitely Zug. Zug is fringestream. Zug will try anything once. Zug makes it up as it goes. Zug is unapologetically unapologetic. Zug is a noun, a verb and an adjective. To Zug is to be unlike others.

The MINI Clubman was launched with the Zug theme as “The Other MINI,” which was executed through outdoor, viral films, television, cinema, guerilla stunts, print and online.

As a result of the campaign, within three months of launching, the Clubman waitlist grew to four months long. MINI reached an unprecedented number of pre-orders for the Clubman, as 90% of the U.S.-bound Clubman models were special-ordered by customers. Fueled by the Clubman, MINI sales reached historic levels and during the Clubman launch (January–June 2008) MINI experienced growth of +40%, while the total industry was in severe decline. Although sales of small cars were also growing, their growth was far outpaced by MINI.

Since 1968, winning an Effie award has become a global symbol of achievement, as the Effies honor the most significant achievement in marketing communications: ideas that work. Known by advertisers and agencies globally as the pre-eminent award in the industry, the Effies recognize any and all forms of marketing communication that contribute to a brand’s success. Today, Effie celebrates effectiveness worldwide with the annual World Effie Festival, the Global Effie, the EURO Effie, Effie Asia Pacific (Effie APAC) and more than 35 national Effie programs.

MINI in the US
MINI is an independent brand of the BMW Group. In the United States, MINI USA operates as a business unit of BMW of North America, LLC which has been present in the United States since 1975. Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC began distributing vehicles in 2003. The BMW Group in the United States has grown to include marketing, sales, and financial service organizations for the BMW brand of motor vehicles, including motorcycles, the MINI brand, and the Rolls-Royce brand of Motor Cars; DesignworksUSA, a strategic design consultancy in California; a technology office in Silicon Valley and various other operations throughout the country. BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC in South Carolina is part of BMW Group’s global manufacturing network and is the exclusive manufacturing plant for all X5 Sports Activity Vehicles and X6 Sports Activity Coupes. The BMW Group sales organization is represented in the U.S. through networks of 338 BMW passenger car centers, 335 BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers, 142 BMW motorcycle retailers, 83 MINI passenger car dealers, and 30 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers. BMW (US) Holding Corp., the BMW Group’s sales headquarters for North America, is located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

Information about BMW Group products is available to consumers via the Internet at:
www.bmwgroupna.com
www.miniusanews.com

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Journalist note: Information about the BMW Group and its products is available to journalists on-line at the BMW Group PressClub at the following address: www.press.bmwgroup.com and select “USA” from the list of National PressClubs. Broadcast quality video footage is available via The NewsMarket at www.thenewsmarket.com.

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