Over the weekend, MINI celebrated it’s 60th birthday with its biggest Goodwood Festival of Speed yet.
Experiential agency TRO reimagined what it means to activate at the festival, creating an experience that will look and feel very different to everything that surrounds it.
Electric Avenue was a celebration of MINI’s brand universe, past and present, featuring everything from a barber’s, a MINI store, a studio that recreates the set of the original 1959 ad, the David Bowie art car – the only one in the world – and culminating in the UK debut of MINI’s first ever electric vehicle.
In contrast to a typical stand from a major auto brand at Goodwood, Electric Avenue does not take its design cues from a car showroom and, though the experience all leads to the electric launch, it is not a product-centric experience; rather it was designed to bring together MINI brand fans from all backgrounds, as well as appeal to new audiences through its many different brand and cultural touchpoints.
Amelia Shepherd, Managing Director of TRO, said: “Auto brands need to be defined less around the image of their products and more around the lifestyle of their audience. Brands need to better understand and be more specific and selective about who their prospect audiences should be, and ensure when activating they are making a cultural contribution to that community – and experiential, by providing that value in a live, physical environment, is critical to building that equity.”
The experience also marked the return of the Classic MINI ‘Issi’, has an owners’ lounge with complimentary food, drink and a DJ, as well as yet another testament to MINI’s status as one of the more creative brands in the auto industry: a flash mob performance on the Saturday 6th July.
