Since the unveiling of its new “Defy Labels” ad campaign during this year’s Super Bowl, BMW-owned Mini has hit its highest consumer perception mark since October 2014 and is still climbing.
Since the first teasers began showing up at the end of this past January, the provocative series of spots helped give Mini’s perception “legs” long after the initial spot aired during the big game.
In the dramatic message-driven ad, various celebrities such as Serena Williams, Harvey Keitel, and Abby Wambach stand in front of Minis proclaiming platitudes like “This is a chick car.” “This is a gay car.” “This is a short man’s car.”
To underscore what the campaign’s impact may have been for Mini, close rival Fiat has been losing perception ground since mid-February, eventually dropping into more negative perception than positive at the beginning of this month.
YouGov BrandIndex measured perception with its Buzz score, which asks respondents: "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?" A score can range from 100 to -100 with a zero score equaling a neutral position.
Two weeks before the Super Bowl in mid-January, Mini’s Buzz score was 1. Once the teasers dropped, the score slowly began to rise to 2 by game time, and now seven weeks later, the score is up to 7.
Fiat’s story has remained mostly flat: marking a zero (neutral) score at the same spot two weeks before Super Bowl, Fiat rose to a 1 score in mid-February, only to head down to -2 by March 8th and now standing at -1, marking an 8 point difference with Mini.
Buzz: Mini, Fiat
