Wayne Bryant Wayne Bryant

The ‘Minis Have Feelings Too’ clip seems to sum up Christmas without a single word being spoken. It’s a twinkly, snow-filled, tear-jerking classic.

The campaign in question came along at an important time in the history of the Mini brand. Sales were poor in the mid-1980s and the cheeky run-around was scheduled to end production in 1987. However, market research had shown the car was popular with women, making up 7 out of 10 Mini buyers, and that’s where the cute Christmas campaign came in. With the help of this festive 30 second clip, parent company Austin Rover saw Mini sales rise by over 100 cars a week, ensuring a (initially temporary) stay of execution that eventually saw the plucky little car carry on until the year 2000. What a transformation a sprinkling of creative gold dust can have.

BMW has steered the MINI brand with great aplomb since the turn of the century, although it’s intriguing to think that without this piece of creative work in the mid-80s this most marketable of brands would no longer have existed. So it seemed rather apt we had thought of this advert when we spotted that MINI has unveiled a new brand identity this week. The winged wheel device first saw the light of day on classic Mini Coopers all the way back in 1990. BMW gave the brand identity a brush up for the launch of their new cars in 2000 and now they’ve just done so again. MINI has given the new, updated badge a flat graphic look which is clean and minimal.

We’ll be intrigued to see how it translates into a physical badge on the cars, as the previous version was essentially a two dimensional interpretation of a metal badge and naturally lent itself to a 3D form. A glorified sticker of some sort perhaps? I’m sure Stuart will be in the showroom for ‘research purposes’ soon enough to find out. After all, they might be small, but even Minis don’t fit in Christmas stockings. Happy Christmas everyone.

Ready to get started?

Let's talk.

Start a project