Everyone with a bit of racing blood in them will remember the good old game of Scalextrics, alas then we grew up……….well its back!
MINI, together with digital agency, Gloo, made some serious noise at this year’s Johannesburg International Motor Show with an installation that enabled the brand to stand out from the crowd and attract record numbers of car enthusiasts to its stand.
“The challenge facing the team,” says Adam Brandt, Executive Creative Director at Gloo JHB, “was to reveal the latest MINI John Cooper Works range to the show’s audience in an engaging and impactful way.” He continues, “The range is built around the positioning, For the boy in you, so leveraging MINI’s racing heritage, we embraced the nostalgic childhood game of Scalextrics and gave it a new technological twist.”
The result was MINILECTRIX, a bespoke MINI Scalextrics course consisting of a 4-lane track, a stylised track environment which included a replica MINI dealership, and various on-track cameras and sensors controlled by a custom iPad control system.
Says Gloo Founder and CEO, Pete Case, “MINILECTRIX provided the perfect platform for visitors to the show to challenge others on the racetrack and created a fantastic PR buzz for MINI.”
After registering their details, racers used sliding accelerators on one side of the interface and a boost button on the other to navigate the course and compete for the chance to win a MINI JCW High Performance driving course.
Sensors along the circuit automatically triggered cameras around the track. These dynamic shots, together with lap times and leaderboard information were displayed live on screens above the track, to attract a wider audience to the stand.
At the end of each race, the player’s time, position and photo finish were shared on social media platforms to spread the word of MINILECTRIX.
“The MINILECTRIX campaign was such an awesome interactive idea for MINI South Africa,” says Carmen Slade, Brand Communications: MINI. “Driving a MINI is all about the go-kart feeling and at a motor show event, you can’t race the cars around the race track, so racing our cars around a Scalextrics set is the next best thing. We loved the idea and it made a powerful digital activation and brand statement, based on such a simple insight. The scale of the set was huge and it added value by gaining a lot of attention for us at the JHB International Motor Show.”
The activation brought MINI to the attention of the show’s 241 358 visitors and generated over 1 400 potential leads for the brand.
Gloo is proud to be South Africa’s most awarded digital agency for both effective and creative work. It has been recognised as the nation’s Digital Agency of the Year in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. Gloo has been MINI’s digital agency since 2010.
