A New Delhi parking garage provided a fitting venue for the launch of the Mini Countryman in India. But with an event theme of "Not Normal," chosen to reflect the car company's design principles, producer Showtime Events had to make the normal setting for a car anything but.
The answer for the May 4 event was to recast the Eros Corporate Tower's 34,000-square-foot parking garage as a nightclub with painted black walls, thumping music, and LED lights. As guests drove up, three vertical banners let guests know they were in the right place and introduced the "Not Normal" theme. While driving up to reserved parking on the fifth level, guests passed signs with Mini images and speed-related messages such as "Hit Full Throttle" or "Dust to Dawn" that helped them navigate to their reserved parking spots. Elevators wrapped in Mini branding carried the 800 guests to the party, which progressed over three levels of the garage.
The event included a reception, fashion show, and a rooftop lounge where guests could take in 3-D video mapping projection on an 18-story building next door. Guests were also driven in Minis to another level of the garage for a stunt driving performance, and cameras installed in the chauffeured cars captured the guests' reactions to the skids and drifts.
Showtime Events had a week to create the space, which included painting the ceiling and walls black and removing all of the bumps and other traffic-calming features in the garage to create a smooth and safe floor. Showtime worked with local and U.K.-based vendors on the launch including African Motion Picture Company for the projections, lighting designer Tom Lesh, Sound.com on the sound, and Hyatt Regency for the catering. More than 400 crew members worked on the project.
