At first glance, the all-new 2007 MINI Cooper and Cooper S models look really similar to the MINI everyone knows and loves. The real differences are under the hood, and there’s just too many to explain in a 30-second spot. So in sticking to its tradition of not doing anything in a traditional way, the car manufacturer has launched an action-packed web film series called Hammer and Coop with Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners (BSS&P), Sausalito, Calif.
Over the course of the six episodes–the last one was released yesterday at www.hammerandcoop.com –viewers get to see quite a bit of MINI content that has been written into the storyline. “So as the episodes unfold you are able to really experience what the differences are in the vehicle in a way that I think is engaging and fun as opposed to a laundry list, which you would almost have to do if you want to do a television spot,” explains agency Creative Director John Butler.
The Hammer and Coop series was born out of the good old days of the car buddy shows of the 1970s and ’80s like Knight Rider, Starsky and Hutch and Dukes of Hazzard. The biggest challenge was making sure they could replicate the genre, which is slightly tongue and cheek, and not have it be goofy. “There is a real fine line between that stuff. I look at this project as sort of a loving homage to that genre and that’s what we tried for,” Butler said.
One of the reasons they succeeded is because they tapped director Todd Phillips of bicoastal Moxie Pictures. He helmed Old School in 2003 and the ’04 remake of Starsky and Hutch. “We were lucky to get him,” Butler said. “He knows humor and is very very good on his feet. We knew we were going to need someone with a feature mentality because we needed someone who can move fast. The feature guy, the really good ones, they get it in two or three takes.”
Hammer and Coop follows a streetwise crime fighter named Hammer, as he attempts to keep a black ’07 MINI, called Coop–equipped with an artificial intelligence mainframe and the ability to speak in a British accent–out of the clutches of a wealthy villian.
Because of all the action, Phillips chose to shoot in super 16mm. The cameras were compact and could be used in the cars and their mobility lent itself to the stunt work. Aesthetically it made sense because the TV shows from that era were shot on film. The web series was finished in HD.
Brand experience
It is in the chase scenes and flashbacks hinting at how Coop came to be where the latest features of the MINI are integrated in an organic way. For instance, we hear about the sports button, which adjusts various settings to provide more rapid acceleration response, tighter steering and quicker gear changes. To illustrate that this boost in power didn’t come at the expense of fuel efficiency, the script cleverly has Hammer and Coop make a pit stop at a gas station where Hammer needs to refuel with some beef jerky but Coop refuses gasoline when it’s offered to him.
The voice of Coop is actually copywriter Lyle Yetmen. Peter Rincon of POP Sound, Santa Monica, honed the voice, which needed to sync with an LED display on the car’s dashboard that generates a bar pattern as it speaks. He also modified the voice to make it sound as though it is coming through the car’s speakers. “We used EQ and high-pass filters,” Rincon said. “We wanted the voice to have a tinny quality, but not too tinny, or it would sound like a phone.”
The music and sound design also contribute to the storytelling and humor of the series. Music was provided by Tree Adams and Ted Shapiro of Search Party Music, New York, and sound design by Tim Gettiner of Sovereign Sound, Hollywood.
A music video featuring footage from the Hammer and Coop series, set to the ’82 hit Heat of the Night by rockers Asia, can also be seen on the site. There are also downloadable screensavers and wallpapers, a chance to create your own action name as well as a the opportunity to share the site with a friend.
To promote the series, Hammer and Coop made appearances on YouTube and MySpace and in print. In Men’s Health, for instance, they were shown doing a workout routine. In addition cinema trailers for the MINI films are showing in theaters nationwide, and movie posters designed by Boris Vallejo are on display in bus shelters nationwide. “We really marketed this campaign like a movie,” Butler said.
CREDITS:
Client MINI USA www.hammerandcoop.com
Agency Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners, Sausalito, Calif. (web films) John Butler, creative director; Lyle Yetman, ACD/copywriter; Will Dean, art director; Maggie Dunn, producer (website) Rikesh Lal, Jay Lorenzini,art directors; Robyn Gunn, copywriter; Erik Hunter, flash production; Tom Yaniv, after effects; Nicolas Harr, Heather Ruder, interactive producers; Maggie Dunn, William Kneip, broadcast producers; Lori Pisani, account supervisor
Production Company Moxie Pictures, bicoastal Todd Phillips, director; Jonathon Brown, DP; Pete Vitale, production company producer
Editorial Cosmo Street, Santa Monica Katz and Tessa Davis, editors
Music Search Party Music, New York Tree Adams and Teddy Shapiro, composers
Sound Design Sovereign Sound, Hollywood Tim Gettimer, sound designer
Audio Post POP Sound, Santa Monica, Calif. Peter Rincon, mixer
Actor Bryan Callen
