Behind Mini’s Las Vegas Sphere ad that touts new in-car digital assistant ‘Spike’

Mini—which for months has been teasing a new in-car virtual assistant named Spike—is giving the bulldog-like character its biggest stage yet in the form of an ad on the Las Vegas Sphere. A 90-second video that began running this week on the massive entertainment structure shows Spike wandering about the Sphere. He is made to look like he is peering out at onlookers, and at one point is inflated to the point where he covers the entire screen, before hopping inside a Mini Countryman crossover where he is shown interacting with the vehicle’s instrument panel. Also read: A guide to advertising on the Las Vegas Sphere The ad, which was handled by Pereira O’Dell, is slated to run in rotation until Dec. 1, when it will be featured for four straight hours. Mini declined to share what it paid for the placement. Ad Age A-List & Creativity Awards Final deadline approaching for annual program Enter here BMW-owned Mini first introduced Spike in April at the Shanghai Auto Show. The brand describes Spike as an “intelligent digital assistant,” while other outlets have drawn comparisons to Microsoft’s Clippy, the paperclip-like character the company deployed in the 1990s to assist people using its Office software. Spike will be integrated into future Mini models, responding to drive voice commands as part of a circular OLED (organic light-emitting diodes) touchscreen on the central instrument panel. The digital assistant is inspired by Spike the British Bulldog, a canine that British-born Mini has used in marketing since 2001 (as seen below). “Mini will always be synonymous with emotions and remarkable experiences,” Oliver Heilmer, head of MINI design, said in a statement earlier this year. “That’s why we are now taking Spike into the future as a digital character.” But when bringing Spike to life on the Sphere, Pereira O’Dell had to deal with the realities of the still relatively new ad medium. “It’s massive … and you can do a lot with it,” said Rob Lambrechts, the agency’s chief creative officer. “But there are elements that you don't have,” he added, including sound and music. Pereira O’Dell studied previous Sphere ads videos and conferred with operators of the structure, which is owned by Sphere Entertainment Co., whose holdings include MSG Networks, before determining that the best way to handle the video was to treat it as a piece of art. That meant avoiding telling a “complex story,” Lambrechts said, noting that simplicity is needed because the sheer size of the Sphere means anything displayed on it takes time to process. “You need to tell an abbreviated visual story,” he said, noting that successful videos show characters looking like they are engaging with the world outside. The video is even devoid of some of the normal tenets of advertising—a tagline or or call to action. “We went through a number of iterations where we did have some of that stuff, but then it felt too complicated and you wouldn't take it in,” Lambrechts said. Of course, one of the major benefits of Sphere ads is that they have garnered outsized attention on social media from passersby or brands sharing the videos on their social channels. Lambrechts noted that any supplemental brand messaging can live on the text of social posts, rather than in the actual video. Mini is not the first automaker on the Sphere. Lexus ran an ad earlier this mong as part of its long-running holiday “December to Remember” campaign. The video was also pretty simple—it showed a Lexus topped with the campaign’s recognizable red bow bursting through an ice globe. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lexus (@lexususa)

Behind Mini’s Las Vegas Sphere ad that touts new in-car digital assistant ‘Spike’

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