“A clever, personable narration and humorous delivery make this a fun ‘psychological’ test—and we all know that fun is where it’s at.” —juror Craig Swann

“A clever use of ‘the idea’—the copy is smart and funny and I love the iconography!” —juror Sasha Kurtz

Overview: Written to appeal to a young demographic, this sitelet offers a clever psychological quiz about the MINI. Based on the viewer’s responses to these Rorschach-type questions, a profile is presented and one can sign up for further e-mail correspondence.

• 440k base SWF file
• English and French version
• Effective use of narration and sound effects
• 3 weeks, 5 people

Comments by Steve Mykolyn:
“Marketing has always been a great tool for creating a crippling fear of social rejection deep in the subconscious of a target audience. This project for MINI was so interesting because it allowed us to exploit the subconscious in a very different way.

“MINI Canada had compiled a substantial e-mail list of interested consumers from auto shows and other venues and wanted to whittle this database down into a highly qualified list of leads to pass on to their retailers. So, one of thefirst steps was to divide the audience into two categories: those interested in value (e.g., trunk space) and those interested in performance (e.g., torque). Essentially, we wanted to know what they were thinking—to explore their subconscious. So, to solve a classic psychological problem we turned to a classic psychological technique—the inkblot test.

“To put the audience in the right frame of mind, we began with a lengthy Flash intro using relaxing music and a soothing voiceover. We then showed four inkblots and asked them to choose from a list of responses (the first three of which were obviously nonsensical and the fourth was the only ‘real’ one). Basically, a task that could’ve been accomplished in under five seconds took almost four minutes —our true source of pride on this project.

“This is one of those projects that turned out so well that it seemed as if the clients were as concerned about padding our portfolios as we were. But that’s really not the case. We worked hard to make sure the piece reflected the mischievous MINI branding and that it was entertaining enough for users to actually want to hear more from MINI. This piece met each of their initial objectives and has been a huge success from a viral standpoint.

The program will continue with further e-mails to deliver specific info to users based on their choices of performance or value. It’s currently being translated into at least three other languages for use in other countries; we’re still waiting to see how they pull off the ‘MINI Driver’ joke in Russian.”