22 June 2010 - 9:35Mini Learns Clever Advertising Doesn’t Replace Horsepower.

Now here’s a good story.

Nearly two weeks ago, Mini released a video on Facebook and YouTube calling out Porsche in a heads-up, David vs. Goliath race.

Mini Cooper S VS. Porsche 911 Carrera S – a difference of 200HP and $65K.

Jim McDowell, Mini North American chief (and former Porsche exec) lays out the guideline.

Mini, who is no stranger to clever advertising, created an extensive campaign around this throwdown, through Facebook e-petitions, a full page color ad in the New York Times and even rented a plane and flew a banner reading, “Dear Porsche, Bring it! Love, MINI,” over Porsche’s North American headquarters.

Days passed as Mini and automotive enthusiasts alike waited for a response. Blogs buzzed, online car communities roared, tweets echoed and Facebook e-petitions and e-signatures exploded – the conversation was thick and the automotive community held their breath as they waited for a response. People were tuned in. Will Porsche send out their best and play into Mini’s PR antics? What’s there to gain if Porsche does accept?

Finally, Porsche responds to the children at Mini.

While your challenge seems like a fun and lighthearted campaign, we’ll stick to racing the way we have over the decades. We welcome you at Sebring, Le Mans, Daytona or any other sanctioned race where there is more at stake than T-shirts and valet parking spaces.

-North America Porsche president, Detlev Von Platen

Owned.

Along with the letter, Porsche also linked them to this video.

This campaign initiated a ton of conversation, but has lost momentum since Porsche’s letter.

Hyundai, however, stepped in and joined the PR blitz with its own video challenge as they explained, “our driver’s a bit busy this week preparing to set the World Record at Pikes Peak… but July is looking good.” Mini’s response? None yet.

Yesterday, as the clock continued to count down on Mini’s Facebook page, it was still unclear where the campaign was going, or even if the event was still being held. 1 hour, then 20 minutes, then 3, then 00:00:00.

Nothing.

It was only till this morning did we discover the results.

Can you guess? Porsche came out to play, and Mini lost, big time.

Though a 2 second difference in laptime isn’t the greatest of margins, the embarrassing loss of losing a race Mini created, hyped and marketed was a great blow to Mini’s image. This campaign had tons of energy in the beginning, then completely flopped. Nice try Mini, maybe you can salvage your reputation with Hyundai’s challenge.