Getaway Stockholm
View the case- Brand
- MINI
- Year
- 2010
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Automotive
- Mechanic
- Adventure & Quest
- Platform
- App
- Agency
- Monterosa
Objective
MINI Sweden used the Countryman launch to make the car's core promise — escape, speed, the getaway — something people did rather than watched. Jung von Matt Stockholm's brief was explicitly to create "MINI evangelists": a stunt that would spread through Stockholm by word of mouth and build demand ahead of the new model's arrival.
Solution
Players downloaded a free iPhone app that turned central Stockholm into a week-long game of tag played on a live map, tracking a virtual MINI Countryman as it moved through the city. The map showed three things at once: the car's position, the player's own position, and everyone else who was hunting — so the chase unfolded block by block in real time. Getting within 50 metres of the car let a player tap to grab it, but the instant they did, their own location went live to every other player, flipping them from hunter to hunted. Holding the car meant staying out of anyone else's 50-metre radius around the clock for a full week; anyone could also watch the pursuit unfold remotely at minigetawaystockholm.com, following the car's route across the city. Whoever had the virtual MINI on their phone when the week ended won a real MINI Countryman.
Results
11,413 players took part over the week, collectively "driving" the virtual car nearly 1,500 km around Stockholm, with an average play time of 5 hours 6 minutes per person. The chase also drew remote followers from 90 countries to minigetawaystockholm.com, and campaign videos passed 100,000 views on YouTube. MINI's Swedish sales rose 108% in the first quarter after the campaign — a sales record for the brand in Sweden.
- 1
The player learns of a citywide manhunt: MINI invites every iPhone owner to a seven-day chase across Stockholm for a virtual MINI Countryman, with a real Countryman as the prize. The companion app is a free download, but only someone physically in Stockholm can take part.
- 2
The event opens at a set time and place — Sunday, October 31, 2010, 3pm at Medborgarplatsen — where the virtual MINI first appears and the crowd of players begins the chase together from that single point.
- 3
The app's core screen is a live map of Stockholm showing three things at once: the virtual car's position, the player's own position, and every other hunter's position.
- 4
The core loop is physical pursuit: players walk or move through the real city toward the car's marker, watching the map to see rivals converging on the same spot, until closing to within 50 meters lets them tap to claim the car onto their own phone.
- 5
Claiming the car flips the player's role from hunter to hunted — the map now broadcasts the holder's position to everyone else, and the loop reverses: staying more than 50 meters from every other player, at all hours, is the only way to keep possession, since any rival who closes that gap takes the car away.
- 6
Over the week the car changes hands repeatedly and travels with its holders across the whole city, racking up close to 1,500 km of combined movement.
- 7
Non-players can spectate remotely: a companion website tracks the car's live position and the state of the chase, drawing viewers from 90 countries.
- 8
The game ends at a fixed deadline seven days later, on November 7, 2010, when whoever holds the virtual car on their phone at that moment wins the real MINI Countryman.
