From AI-generated campaigns to fake online comments, MINI CMO Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod shares how marketers can prepare for a future shaped by intelligent agents.
MINI’s Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod discusses AI-generated content, bot-driven conversations and the new challenges brands face online.
Damian Fowler (00:00):
I'm Damian Fowler.
Ilyse Liffreing (00:01):
And I'm Ilyse Liffreing, and welcome to The Big Impression.
Damian Fowler (00:09):
This week we are joined by Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod, global CMO of Mini. Now, Mini has always been a brand with a strong point of view. While much of the auto industry competes on technology and performance, Mini has built his identity around design, personality, and culture. And I'd say it's something more than a car brand. In lots of ways, it's a cultural icon. I still think of the original Italian job where the Mini practically stole the show. And it
Ilyse Liffreing (00:35):
Continues to catch the eye today. That's especially clear in its recent collaboration with Paul Smith, which brings together two British brands known for creativity, individuality, and a sense of fun.
Damian Fowler (00:47):
So we're going to get into that partnership and why brand character matters more than ever, and how Mini's thinking about creativity, AI as marketing continues to evolve.
Ilyse Liffreing (00:56):
Let's get into it. So Jennifer, the Paul Smith collaboration feels like a great fit for Mini. What made him the right partner and when did you realize there was something special there?
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (01:09):
To be honest, it's not for us a new collaboration. We started in 1998 with Paul Smith and we had the first mini strip. It was really with all these stripes around the mini, the colorful stripes from Paul Smith. And then we started because we had the shared mindset. It's not just looking for someone to have a kind of collaboration. It was more about finding someone who is deeply rooted in our brand DNA and also in our values and the mindset. And we are both British icons, to be honest, and both we challenge conventions. So that also fits together through creativity. And for us individuality as a competitive advantage, we want to use even more in the future. We also introduced our platform self-expression, and that fits because Paul Smith is someone who expressed himself and Mini as well. So on the other side, and that is really good as a team.
(02:09):
And it's not just having a car in the focus, we are working on the character. We are using the character, how you can express yourself. So that's why we try to not just designing a car, it's more of celebrating creativity altogether.
Damian Fowler (02:24):
Say a bit more about that British sensibility, because obviously Mini is a British icon, even though it's no longer owned by BMW. Could you talk a little bit about the sensibility that you're trying to get over with this collaboration, the kind of brand kind of perception as it were, when you bring Paul Smith into this?
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (02:46):
For us, Mini has always been about self-expression, and we are looking for other brands or other characters to show this kind of self-expression because having a look into the past with the classic Minis, no Mini looks the same. All were different. And people wanted to express themselves. And I think today, even more, they want to express themselves, but they want to be part of a community. And that's all 100% Mini. And so Paul Smith is having the same mindset, and he's a British guy, a British icon. And we are focusing because we have this British wit and the charming, being bold and brave, and as a challenger, small challenger. So that fits together. And that's why we also, five years ago, we had the Mini Strip. It was built around sustainability, circularity. It was a one-off, just the concept car to show you can reduce everything, but Mini will stay the same as a core, as a brand.
(03:45):
And now five years later, we are building up this addition so you can buy these cars. And it's really a good success at the moment. We have so much demand on it, even much more than we have expected before. It's our new campaign. It's the edition campaign. So what we are having is campaigns around the cars. And then what we are having additionally, the edition campaigns. And we had the Dios. Maybe you have heard about the Dios Colab. It was in one off for the IAA. So Dios X-Machina was also a collaboration with another brand to bring self-expression in another twist.
Damian Fowler (04:19):
Is that also a fashion brand?
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (04:20):
Yes, it is a Dios X-Machina with bicycles where they have, it's more of a rocket and Motorad. So they're doing this and it was also a huge success at the IAA. It was more about storytelling. And the same with Paul Smith. It's always about story.
Ilyse Liffreing (04:36):
So Jennifer, why don't you tell me when the Paul Smith campaign first started and what this new iteration looks like?
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (04:42):
Okay. We started last year in November, and so it was an SOC, a start of communication. And now, yes, you can buy the cars since April this year. The first one, the next, the model will follow in August, I think. And the idea behind this, coming from the personal philosophy of Paul Smith is every day is a new beginning. And what we want to express with it wasn't just a slogan, it became a mindset for us. So we are having as mini and the automotive industry, the biggest transformation in the history, to be honest. And we launched a completely new family two years ago for Mini. Then we have the transformation into electric vehicles on the other side and the AI transformation, how we work together. So there's a lot changes out there at the moment. And the idea behind Everyday Is the New Beginning was that Everyday offers a chance to start fresh.
(05:43):
You can have a little bit of a surprise and unexpected moments like this. And that fits totally to Mini. And you can also see this in the cars. We have little surprises in it. We have different twinkles. And also Paul Smith invented himself. The mini has not the stripes that you know from the past. It's more reduced from the color and just to see the stripes at little batches on the car. So that was also, he involves into the future similar to us.
Damian Fowler (06:14):
Do you have a little bit of a sense of the kind of car buyer, the audience that you're trying to reach with this collaboration?
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (06:22):
Yes. On the one hand side, we try to also reach the Paul Smiths customers. I think that's what collaborations try to do. They bring both customer groups together and then that the other one around is interested in maybe the fashion from Paul Smith's, our customers, and the customers of Paul Smiths are interested in buying a mini, a Paul Smith's mini. But we also have some demand from really famous people because they are saying, wow, that's so cool. That's typical mini and I want to buy one. And that's similar to the past because in the past, maybe you know Madonna or the Beatles or David Bowie, they drove a mini and they expressed themselves so they have their own customized mini in their style. And that's a new direction for the future because that was 100% mini and we want to go even more in this direction.
(07:12):
So also with Dios, Dios, the collaboration, it was just a one-off, but you can see really a mora car for the racing track and it was for surfers. And that was also a kind of, it was not an addition, it was a one-off. But here we want to show how you can express yourself with different styles, different customized minis, different collaborations.
Damian Fowler (07:36):
It's interesting that you launched these limited edition vehicles, so it gives you a fresh campaign in many ways when you do that. And I also know that you built a lot of live community events around the campaign. Could you talk a little bit about why that's important right now, kind of real time in-person events, community events, and that kind of experience that customers can have?
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (08:02):
I think nowadays we have so many digital experience all the time. And it's also great. It's important because you can reach the customer 24 hours a day. But you can also see on the other hand side, people want to have or want to look into experience, real experience. They want to feel a brand, they want to feel other people. It's more about communities and to becoming culturally relevant. And I think you cannot reach this through just digital. You need both. And so what we combined is we had this event, Salune de Mobile in Milan for the design week. So there you have all these fashion people, and it was not like a booth in Shanghai at the motor show or so. It was really a garden where they could express Mini Paul Smiths in different ways. They explored, they discovered a little bit. It was like an immersive experience and it was such a huge success because they walked around through the garden.
(09:06):
There were the different doors with Everyday's New Beginning. And behind every door, there was this little bit of a surprise and that was really cool. And so we had such a good feedback on this because they met each other, they chat, and they were part of this garden. And so that's really authentic then. And that's I think the future.
Ilyse Liffreing (09:29):
At a time when so much creative work is driven by AI, this work really feels human. You actually had Paul Smith there, you worked with him around these events. Do you think is that part of what resonated both maybe inside the company and then with consumers?
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (09:50):
Absolutely. 100%. Because people want to touch and feel and drive, and they fell in love with people, with someone before they fell in love with a brand. So it's important. And it was also the idea behind to use Paul Smith as a protagonist and also to activate the community because people connect with people first. So human stories outperform to corporate messaging, what we did in the past, I think. And he's on stage and he's such a funny and woody guy. He's like a little boy to be honest. And that's also similar to Mini because Mini is a challenger, it's bold and brave, and so that fits together. So I think you have more credibility if you have someone like Paul Smith on stage instead of just sending corporate messages from Mini that we are cool and we are in that way. So I think that's important for the future.This
Damian Fowler (10:51):
Is an award-winning campaign, but what were the moments or signals that made you think, "Okay, this is really connecting with people who like this car, who like this brand?"
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (11:02):
If you see that people are sharing your assets, the story behind and you haven't asked them to share it, it went automatically. And there's a conversation out there and the community's part of it and they really love it. And you can see it on the comments. And you can also feel it in the different events we had, especially in Japan. We started in Japan. We had all these events in every single dealership and in every single store of Paul Smith's. And coming together and all these comments on this, that feels really proud. And you see now the campaign works. It's much more than just looking at reach because we are getting relevance and then we have a cultural moment, to be honest, if people are talking about this topic about us and about a small movement on this.
Ilyse Liffreing (11:54):
You know what I really like about this campaign is that it really leans into Minnie's heritage and it's such a legacy brand. How do you think about that heritage point as a strength rather than something that might hold the brand back?
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (12:11):
Absolutely. Heritage is often misunderstood because some say, oh, you're stuck in the past. But I think heritage is so important, especially nowadays where so many brands and products were similar and all these technology will merge together. So the real differentiator is distinctiveness and it's the heritage. Also the Chinese, my Chinese market tells me what is really strong for me is that we have such a huge heritage because the other Chinese brands cannot offer a heritage. They have great products, but they cannot offer the heritage. And the heritage, it's the core of the brand. So you need the foundation. It's innovation for sure. It's a hygiene factor today. But what different traits us is the story behind. And we have a real legacy coming from the classic mini, won the race in Monte Carlo. No one expected this. So that's really strong and that makes the difference for us, why people felt in love and always fall in love with mini so often.
Damian Fowler (13:19):
You've experimented with AI-driven campaigns like proactive care. Could you say a little bit about that and why that's important?
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (13:28):
Yes, we are trying out different things. I think AI, it's not the new trend. I think it will stay because it makes things better. You can execute with AI even faster, more personalized. You can create assets for sure, and it really helps you on your work and your daily work. But on the other side, you need the human touch. You need the creativity, the strategy, the gut feeling that it comes together to steer a brand. So I think for the future, you have to combine both. That's really important. So technology scales creativity, but humanity creates meaning. And what is important today, that we have a meaning and relevance out there. So therefore we want to go in this direction and we need this. And I also tried to bring this in my team and Proactive Care was the first campaign. And it was also interesting because my team struggled a little bit and said, "Why should we use it really?
(14:20):
And we are not sure." And said, "Okay, for the IAA, I wanted to have our first campaign, AI generate 100%, to learn and to learn on efficiency and on effectiveness. So then have a look into the results." And I say, "Okay, if you want to have a campaign, you will get one for the IAA." And that was really, really impressive because we had an efficiency around 60% in terms of time and budget, both. And it's also for the team, it was a huge learning to then go on adapting and including AI in their daily business.
Ilyse Liffreing (14:55):
So you feel like it was successful then?
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (14:58):
Absolutely. Absolutely. But you need both. So it was a small compaint to be honest. And it was for us not that easy. I wanted to have really a film, but as a car, it's not that easy in AI to show because it's much easier for a shoe, for example. I've learned about this because nowadays it's okay. But half year ago, it was not possible to have 100% the real car in the film. It was not possible
Damian Fowler (15:26):
In
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (15:26):
The spot. So that's why we had a combination at the beginning with CGI and AI. And now it merged, now it's possible. So we learned from month to month.
Ilyse Liffreing (15:36):
Wow. Yeah, the tools and capabilities have come along so fast.
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (15:39):
It's amazing. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. So I forced my team every single day to try to use it. And also we had a process now having a look at every single department. And in the first department you have this competitor analysis, you have the strategy, you have the budget steering, you have the campaign planning. The next one is the asset production and the creation, and the third one is delivery to the markets. So as a team, we looked into all these buckets and thought about where can we use AI? And so now we have little buckets to show where we make progress and what we learned out of it. So about efficiency and time and budget.
Damian Fowler (16:27):
Let's zoom out a little bit in terms of the big picture for automotive marketing. Obviously the Paul Smith Collab is a brand building exercise. You talked about AI using the different buckets, but do you use it to help drive the performance side of the marketing campaign? And at the same time, you talk about building the long-term brand equity. How do you keep those two things in balance as a marketer?
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (16:56):
AI supports your own research, for example, on insights, trend, identification, testing, assets, optimization. But on the other side, you need humans to decide on purpose, on character, on taste, on meaningfulness and cultural relevance. So we bring both together. So I try to integrate technology-wise, AI in the systems in the way we are working. And on the other side, we are looking into what kind of cultural relevance we want to have in the future. What kind of main pillars Mini wanted to address? What kind of co-abs we wanted to have, which really supports our brands. So where we have shared values with a co-lib, for example, similar to Paul Smith's, and to bring both together and also to have life experience on the one hand side and digital on the other side. So you need the balance between both, I think, to be really successful. And I think really AI can really support you in one way.
(17:53):
And it's the way you train AI because I think so often you say, "Produce this content for me or this asset." But I think you can also train AI on a character of a brand. And if that works out, it can help you even more. But you need the human on the other side to decide finally, because otherwise all the humos will do the same and ask, "Please create a strategy for me and how should I position the brand in the future?" And that it becomes generic. But then you cannot be distinctive anymore.
Ilyse Liffreing (18:28):
So you know what? Search social shopping are increasingly being mediated by AI. It's everything you look up these days. How does that change the way Mini thinks about brand building when consumers encounter the brand through those algorithms before they ever even go to a dealership or interact with a campaign?
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (18:51):
That's really difficult at the moment, to be really honest with you, because you have to think in a different way because that changed a lot. So people are not going directly in the future to your website to have a look into a specific model. They're going to ChatGPT, Gemini, Cloud and so on and ask, "What do you think? Which car is the right one for me? I'm a young girl or a boy. I want to express myself, for example." So you have to adapt everything, what you are doing. So you have to adapt all the texts on your website, the text behind. You have to write a different way, and it's totally different from just going to the website or to a dealership. And also with the press communication, it's the same. It's not about just having, this is our press article, you send it.
(19:41):
AI will look into all these communities if the brand is really relevant because the community talks a lot and in a positive way. So you have to steer in a subtle way and you cannot control it really. You can prepare as best as possible and to build up your own mini ChatGPT, for example. You can have a companion to helps you if you have question on the website. But before, they do not go to Google anymore. They go directly to AI, to ChatGPT or the others and ask, "Yes, I want to have a car for the summertime. Which one or which brand fits best to me?"
Damian Fowler (20:24):
And AI scrapes Reddit for that community reaction. So how do you feed that?
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (20:30):
You cannot really feed that, to be honest. You have to observe it. And you have to put articles, you have to make a community app, you have to deal with the community in a good way, but you cannot really control it. So that's important because then they will find you and then they will say, "Oh, Mini could be the right for you." But that's really interesting. And I think I cannot tell you, to be honest, 100% the way for the future. We are really trying months to months to define different what we have to adapt. In China, for example, they have a kind of water army. Maybe, I don't know if you have heard about it. No. No. Also interested. It's also these fake comments. It's also 100% AI generated. So another car brand tried to attack you. So if you are having a new car, they do automatically comments on this.
(21:23):
Oh, that's not that good. Oh, no. The other brand is a better one. The price is a better one. Yes. Talking to my Chinese team there because they have to look every single day, and it's a small team. They have not the chance. You need really automization drug into end and to steer it because the people out there cannot really see if it's AI or if it's the real community who says, "Oh, I say that's not good at the product or the price it's too high and have a look at this or that." Because people hear about people, so they follow people.
Ilyse Liffreing (21:56):
On that point, we're going to do some rapid fire ones to you right now. What is one thing you're obsessed with figuring out right now?
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (22:03):
Okay. How AI can unlock more human creativity.
Ilyse Liffreing (22:08):
That's good. What's a brand you admire for having a really clear point of view?
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (22:13):
For me, it's Patagonia.
Ilyse Liffreing (22:14):
Nice.
Damian Fowler (22:16):
What's one thing that marketers still get wrong about AI and creativity?
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (22:23):
I think AI can help you on the one hand side to build assets and so and also to make it better, more efficient. But on the other side, it's not the creative stuff AI is generating. It helps you. But finally, you need a human to have the best creativity out there.
Ilyse Liffreing (22:41):
Very nice. And then finally, what is one trend in marketing you think is overrated?
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (22:46):
Chasing every trend, I think.
Damian Fowler (22:53):
And that's it for this edition of The Big Impression.
Ilyse Liffreing (22:55):
This show is produced by Molten Hart. Our theme is by Love and Caliber, and our associate producer is Sydney Cairns.
Damian Fowler (23:02):
And remember.
Jennifer Treiber-Ruckenbrod (23:03):
Technology scales creativity, but humanity creates meaning.
Damian Fowler (23:08):
I'm Damian.
Ilyse Liffreing (23:08):
And I'm Ilyse.
Damian Fowler (23:09):
And we'll see you next time.