THIS week, as the buzz from the 2012 Olympic Games subsides and the excitement for next week’s Paralympics Games starts to ramp up, it’s a fitting time to recognise one of the most endearing teams of the games so far…. the trio of mini MINI’s being used to collect the javelins, shots and discuses thrown by the world’s top athletes.
These three have already acquired more adoring fans than many athletes and even the most cynical observer must admit that despite being minor players the MINIs have been a major hit with audiences across the globe.
These remote-controlled battery cars were specially designed for the games. They can carry up to 8kgs and run for up to 35 minutes before needing a recharge.
Their role is to carry the shot, javelin, hammer or discus back to the base line and they’ve been doing it so far without the slightest hitch — save for the occasional collision with an official’s shoes.
Each one has already clocked up over 50km of fetching and will do as much again during the Paralympics, which start in just eight days time.
Swerve
As a team they have driven straight into the hearts and minds of millions of people around the world who watched them bring a novel and fun dimension to an otherwise boring function of the games.
However, better still was their ability to swerve through the rules of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which strictly forbids advertising of any kind on the fields of play.
The IOC says the quarter scale models didn’t break these rules because they carried no branding and their choice was not dictated by commercial decisions — which presumably means BMW/MINI didn’t pay for the privilege.
Which must make it all the harder for the many rival carmakers who would have happily paid a fortune for the massive publicity MINI received from their mini motors — and are surely kicking themselves for not having thought of it first.
Obvious
But then just how many car companies have models that are so iconic in design they are instantly identifiable the world over — even by TV viewers who have never been near the real thing?
The answer is not many. Volkswagen’s Beetle would be an obvious contender. Fiat’s 500 might be another.
After that, Land Rover’s Defender is the only other car we can think of that has changed little in shape over the years and is as easily recognised in Costa Rica as in Kenya or Canada.
Merc’s SLS could also qualify — though we think its gull wing doors might make it look like a jousting knight every time it tucked a javelin under one.
Boast
But then which of these carmakers, if any, could boast the free-thinking anything-for-fun attitude MINI seems to have?
We reckon most manufacturers would run a mile from the idea of having one of their models covered — on the outside — with cowhide. MINI didn’t.
Or run with the notion of fitting out a dealer showroom like a nightclub, as MINI in Park Lane London just has.
It’s this lack of stuffiness that allows MINI dealerships to encourage snotty nosed kids to examine their showroom models in detail (because it’s never too soon to encourage brand loyalty!), instead of running them off like most car dealers do.
And it’s this absence of boundaries and outside-the-box thinking that allow MINI come up with winning designs like the MINI Coupe and the Roadster — or a fleet of mini MINIs to help out at the Games.
Gold
All games have their own story and while we will remember London 2012 for the Gold medal Katie Taylor took back from the Olympics — and the, hopefully, many more Ireland will secure at the Paralympics — for many, one of the abiding memories of this year’s games will be the trio of MINIs gamely fetching and carrying despite no chance of winning a medal.
Of course to compensate they’ll have their fame — and the undoubted knock-on affect on sales growth for their bigger siblings.
There’s also the footnote they’ll leave in the history of a brand that has always done things differently.
Most importantly however, their creators will be able to boast that in the battle of British brands, never before was so much notice paid by so many, to so few — for so little.
