The global supply chain crisis caused people to build do-it-yourself versions of literally everything. From furniture to a submarine, DIY content exploded across TikTok. To announce MINI production is back to full speed, we took this DIY trend to the next level, surprising MINI fans with a national DIY MINI epidemic (created using both real and AI-generated DIY MINIs). We paid homage to MINI’s Counterfeit campaign, turning the “Counter Counterfeit Commission” into the “Don’t DIY Department,” a special task force to warn the public and spread the message on TikTok: “Stop DIYing our cars. The MINIs are back.”

Lots of people were flush with cash to buy new MINIs during the supply chain crisis, but MINI simply didn’t have enough cars to go around. That meant lots of people waiting for cars. Eventually, the supply chain worked itself out, and inventory returned to levels approaching normal.

With awareness as our goal, our brief was to ideate a fun, press-worthy way to announce the news that, after an agonizing wait, MINIs were back.

The work is relevant to this category because it sought to capitalize on TikTok’s growing popularity and the tropes and features native to the platform that characterize its successful content.

The global supply chain crisis caused people to build do-it-yourself versions of literally everything. From furniture to an actual submarine, DIY content exploded across TikTok. But as the crisis ended, MINI realized they needed a way to announce their cars were back in stock. So we took the DIY trend insight and turned it into a ridiculous epidemic. The Do-It-Yourself MINI. We took to DIYers’ favorite platform, TikTok, and posted seemingly real DIY MINI Cooper tutorial TikToks made by MINI fans who couldn’t wait any longer for their MINI. Then we launched a fake task force, the Don’t Do-It-Yourself Department, to alert the public and call out MINI DIYers on their favorite platform. And just when we had everyone convinced people were desperately trying to DIY the MINI, we made a big announcement: “Stop DIYing our cars. The MINIs are back. Go get a real one, right now.”

MINI inspires devotion. Thousands of enthusiasts gather biannually and spend their own vacation time and money to rally cross-country. Nearly a third of those who’ve purchased a MINI in the last three years own more than one. They call themselves “MINIacs,” and nothing stands between a MINIac and his or her MINI.

Well, maybe the supply chain crisis. During lockdown, many of us turned to DIY projects—both out of necessity because we couldn’t buy the things we wanted and because we simply had a lot of time. MINIacs wouldn’t take to DIYing MINIs, would they?

This insight naturally lends itself to comedy, particularly the type of absurd comedy that thrives on TikTok. So with this campaign, we set out to launch MINI USA’s presence on the platform and build a following oriented around absurd humor and short-form content created using native TikTok features like dueting and text to speech.

This campaign launched MINI USA’s presence on TikTok behind the veil of the cheeky “Don’t Do-It-Yourself Department” (DDD). We seeded our intro video on TikTok starting on April 13, 2023, and continued to release videos of the DDD reacting to MINI DIY content on the platform every day to build the momentum that this DIY trend was creating an actual “crisis.” Once the DIY videos were circulated, we released the long-form video that capped off the story on April 17, 2023 by announcing MINIs are back—the DDD can shut down because customers can now get a REAL MINI. The CTA drove our audience to miniusa.com/GetARealMINI to customize an actual MINI. TikTok was our primary platform, with posts that were boosted with paid media. We also organically shared DIY MINI content on our other social channels to drive our audience to TikTok and generate followers.

One of MINI’s most successful social initiatives in the brand’s history, the Do-It-Yourself MINI campaign officially launched the MINI USA TikTok channel, establishing it as MINI’s newest and strongest social platform. It received over 9 million views and over 80,000 shares, comments, and likes in less than one week. Just seven days after launch, MINI's TikTok channel continues growing in followers 54% day over day, and MINI sales have increased 38.2% since the supply chain crisis.