The automotive landscape was changing, and MINI Canada faced significant retail challenges that they needed to overcome. MINI’s dealership experience was brick and mortar only, but a limited number of retailers and ongoing staffing constraints meant that not all customers had access to MINI, and inconsistent experiences were being delivered to those who did. On top of this, lean vehicle inventory made is difficult for MINI to fulfill customer expectations at dealerships. In order to maintain awareness & engagement with their audiences, it was clear that MINI needed to evolve their customer experience.
Diving into MINI’s audience research, we found that their customers were also evolving. With the increased prevalence of electric vehicles, MINI’s audience was getting younger. Not only this, but online was now playing a greater role in their journey, with online reviews and videos serving as a greater awareness source than salespeople at dealerships. Audiences were even open to taking high-intent actions online, such as price negotiations, financing and virtual test drives.
This led to our insight, which was that amid retail hardships and technological advancements, MINI’s audience was turning to online resources because it offered them a more convenient and personalized journey.
Understanding that online was playing a greater role in customers retail journey, our big idea emerged: The MINI Virtual Showroom. A VR dealership experience that gives all Canadians access to the MINI showroom. Hosted on MINI.ca, the experience would be omni-channel, enabling audiences to access it from the comfort of their preferred device; no VR headset needed! Within The Virtual Showroom itself, audiences would be able to explore and configure MINI’s various models, visit the electric lounge to view MINI’s EVs and learn more about their electrification efforts, or even visit the lifestyle boutique to browse and shop for MINI merch and accessories. From there, audiences could take a key intent action with MINI, such as book a test drive or build and price a vehicle.
With The MINI Virtual Showroom now created, our challenge was then to build awareness of it and navigate audiences to engage with it. Understanding MINI’s audience was getting younger and predominantly online, we found that they’re more receptive to consuming and participating in digital experiences. Therefore, our media strategy was to use immersive experiences and interactive platforms to connect with audiences most likely to resonate with the Virtual Showroom.
This first came to life by partnering with Meta to create an immersive Virtual Showroom AR Lens. As the highest reaching social platform and a leader in the extended reality space, Meta was the clear choice for introducing Canadians to The MINI Virtual Showroom. We created an AR Lens mirroring the entry experience to the Virtual Showroom and deployed it across Meta platforms, allowing for a frictionless, in-platform introduction to the Virtual Showroom. After engaging with the AR Lens, audiences were then prompted to navigate to the full experience on-site.
We then partnered with Twitch, using the power of its interactive streaming platform to build awareness and engagement with the Virtual Showroom. As young, digital natives, MINI’s audience was becoming increasingly engaged with gaming and live streaming. By partnering with Twitch, MINI would be able to reach a highly captivated audience that’s predisposed to participating in interactive digital experiences, just like The MINI Virtual Showroom. We used a combination of video and display units to build awareness with relevant Twitch audiences and then navigated them to engage with the Virtual Showroom.
The results were anything but mini. The Campaign generated over 57M impressions, increasing exposure of the Virtual Showroom to Canadians across the country. The AR Lens on Meta drove significant lift in awareness for The MINI Virtual Showroom, exceeding automotive benchmarks by over 50%. This shows that by introducing audiences to the Virtual Showroom through an immersive experience, we were successful in building significant awareness around it. The Twitch partnership drove an 88% video completion rate, well exceeding the platform’s benchmarks. By aligning with Twitch’s interactive live streaming platform, we were successful in captivating and engaging audiences around the Virtual Showroom.
The success didn’t stop there. The campaign drove nearly 40K clicks to The MINI Virtual Showroom, showing that we were successful in navigating Canadians to the Virtual Showroom to engage with the experience. Through The MINI Virtual Showroom, we were able to use extended reality to lay the groundwork for the evolving automotive retail landscape, putting MINI ahead of the curve and driving into the future.
