The Britalian Job

MINI has a big plans for rapidly approaching London 2012 Olympics. Being a great host MINI is, MINI partnered up with Team GB and Paralympics GB to create a new short film inspired by the classic 1969 movie "The Italian Job" covering some of the capital's most iconic landmarks including the Houses of Parliment and the brand spanking new Olympic Stadium.

MINI Countryman "Stacked" New York, NY by Justin Carrasquillo

Remember the encore of SUV stunt MINI pulled off last year during the introduction of MINI Countryman with classic Morris MINI sitting on top of MINI Countryman? Here, we have couple beautifully captured images of the campaign by photographer Justin Carrasquillo (Agency: Butler, Shine, Stern & Partner Client: MINI USA) 

VIDEO :: Colby Elrick's Fixed-Gear Crew Rolls to Gilroy's Wheeltalk Compound

Biking world icon Colby Elrick takes his MINI Countryman Wanderlust event and SKYLMT team off-road to shoot a fixie film in the wilderness 200 miles from downtown San Francisco. Video after the jump

[ Source :: Youtube via MINI Space ]

KISS edition MINI Countryman charity auction starts tomorrow

KISS edition MINI Countryman charity auction starts tomorrow, May 29 at 4 PM PST on eBay. The anticipation has been building up for the past month with lots of media exposure and MINI Rocks the Rivals event, and there seems to be rather high interest among die-hard KISS fans. These 4 KISS-inspired, custom painted and autographed MINI Countrymans are sure to become collector's item. So get your checkbook ready! Click here to ebay page

Read more for official release.

MINI Marketing :: MINI Getaway Stockholm. Location based social gaming!

Last November, MINI created tons of buzz at various social media outlets and blogspheres around the globe with their "Getaway Stockholm 2010" campaign set up to promote the new Countryman. This location-based marketing campaign asked everyone with iPhone in Stockholm city (Sweden) to be part of a social gaming experience, a game of cat and mouse that is, for a chance to win a real MINI Countryman! In the end, over 11,000 people participated and virtual MINI traveled 1500 physical kilometers, with an average gaming time of 5 hours 6 minutes per person! I think this was a really cool, brilliant marketing event that created tons of MINI evangelists and made Stockholm city as a living reality game board. Imagine seeing bunch of people running around the streets holding the iPhone, all chasing virtual MINI and one another! Great publicity stunt and ever-so important 'Social' experiment went viral instantly!

Unfortunately, the game is over (We do have Wanderlust campaign to participate!), but you can watch videos after the jump that documented the event.

VIDEO :: MINI Countryman Go out and Getaway!

This video is already old news... as it was tagged as "First Exclusive Video!" of MINI Countryman from the mothership, and was made public February of 2010, even before the official launch of the car at Geneva Motor Show in March. Nonetheless, just like any other well done promo video, it's nicely sugar coated capturing the motto of the car 'Life is out there, Go Live it!'

Video after the jump.

KISS edition MINI Countryman on ebay

If you want to have your own officially authorized, KISS-inspired, custom-painted, autographed MINI Countryman, check your bank account and start getting ready to place a bid on the 'epic' auction. While the official auction will start 4:00PM PST / 7:00PM EST on May 29, 2011, the site is already up on ebay with counter clock set in place. Click here for the link

If you already have a Countryman and budget is limited, you can purchase MINI KISS wraps. Call 1-877-236-4431 for more info.

[ Source :: ebay ]

MINI ROCKS The RIVALS Test Drive Tour *UPDATE

MINI Rocks the Rivals Test Drive Tour kicks off today at South Motors MINI, Miami FL. For those of us in So. California, the first event will be held on April, 28 at MINI of Escondido, then finish off on May 12, at Crevier MINI in Santa Ana before they head over to No.Cal.  I am curious what competitor vehicles MINI would bring out (other than the obvious Nissan Juke!) against Countryman and plan to attend one held at Alexander MINI on April 30. Read More for the complete list of schedule for So. California for all over US*! For other areas, head over to MINI site for more info. *Thanks George for facebook tip!

*UPDATE :: Schedule for all over US added

*UPDATE : It seem the competitors will include Nissan Juke, VW Tiguan (serious competitor), and underwhelming Toyota RAV4. 

MINI comes together with KISS

Is this Early Halloween? Nope! MINI and legendary rock band KISS are partnering up to raise money for UNICEF. Four MINI Countryman custom painted with different design, each representing one of the iconic KISS faces and autographed by all four band members, will be auctioned before Father's Day. The proceeds from the auction will be donated to UNICEF to help children in Japan and emergencies around the globe. I am not a fan of KISS personally, but it is for a great cause and adds onto various marketing campaign MINI is currently running, creating even more buzz around the brand spanking new MINI Countryman. I actually kinda like the graphics of the bottom right... even though I will pass on all of them. This also kicks off "MINI Rocks the Rivals" competitive test-drive tour in US - which I am quite excited about! I will surely be looking forward to attending the test drive event in my area. Read more for complete official release.

[ Source : MINI ]

MINI Countryman Yarn-Bombed. We say 'No Thanks!'

I didn't realize cars need clothes to stay warm. As part of Wanderlust campaign, MINI has commissioned artist Magda Sayegis to 'yarn bomb' the R60 Countryman. While I kindly decline by saying 'No Thanks' , my coworker just shouted 'That's cool!' so there must be followers of recent hipster trendiness of knitting.

[ Source : Worldcarfans ]