Mini's in-car digital assistant takes over the Sphere

Spike, the in-car virtual assistant that BMW’s Mini introduced in April, is featured in a cute and playful new spot running on the Last Vegas Sphere. AdAge has gone behind the scenes in conversation with Rob Lambrechts, chief creative officer at Pereira O’Dell - the agency behind the activation. Lambrechts highlights some of the challenges presented by the new canvas, including lack of audio, but says “It’s massive … and you can do a lot with it.” The world’s biggest screen continues to grab attention even if brands and agencies are wrestling with how to extract the most value out of the format.

Mini—which for months has been teasing a new in-car virtual assistant named Spike—is giving the bulldog-like character its biggest stage yet in the form of an ad on the Las Vegas Sphere.

A 90-second video that began running this week on the massive entertainment structure shows Spike wandering about the Sphere. He is made to look like he is peering out at onlookers, and at one point is inflated to the point where he covers the entire screen, before hopping inside a Mini Countryman crossover where he is shown interacting with the vehicle’s instrument panel.

BMW-owned Mini first introduced Spike in April at the Shanghai Auto Show. The brand describes Spike as an “intelligent digital assistant,” while other outlets have drawn comparisons to  Microsoft’s Clippy, the paperclip-like character the company deployed in the 1990s to assist people using its Office software. Spike will be integrated into future Mini models, responding to drive voice commands as part of a circular OLED (organic light-emitting diodes) touchscreen on the central instrument panel.  

Full story at AdAge.