The Adnostic

When does a community of enthusiasts get classified as a “cult?” When people get tattoos of the brand? When owners know something the rest of the world does not? When engineers spend countless hours of their free time doing product development for company that is only offering them more of their products in exchange?

Mini Cooper is leveraging their enthusiasts by creating a direct mail campaign with a secret box filled with a book on “A Dizzying Look at the Awesomeness of Small” and a couple decoder tools. The tools can be used to find the secret messages in Mini ads placed in five national magazines. MiniOwnersLounge.com instructs recipients on how to use the decoder tools.

One hidden message supposedly leads them to the site asweseefit.com about protecting insects and whatnot, but I looked and there doesn’t seem to be anything there.

Mini’s Marketing Manager and VP are also planning a 14 day 3,000 mile road trip across the US to have dinner with the 200 Mini owners joining them on their trek and enjoy live bands and comedians with the 3,300 other owners who have signed up to meet them along the way.

Read more in Ad Age and this blog. See more pictures of the creative execution here.