Mercedes-Benz: THE INVISIBLE DRIVE

Credits & Description:

Type of entry: Use of Promo & Activation
Category: Best Use of Guerilla Marketing in a Promotional Campaign
Advertiser: DAIMLER
Product/Service: MERCEDES-BENZ F-CELL
Agency: JUNG von MATT Hamburg, GERMANY
Entrant JUNG von MATT Hamburg, GERMANY
Title: THE INVISIBLE DRIVE
DM/Advertising Agency: JUNG von MATT Hamburg, GERMANY
Chief Creative Officer: Thimoteus Wagner (Jung von Matt)
Chief Creative Officer: Fabian Frese ()
Chief Creative Officer: Goetz Ulmer ()
Creative Director: Michael Ohanian ()
Creative Director: Jonas Keller ()
Creative Director: Martin Strutz ()
Copywriter: Michael Ohanian ()
Art Director: Jonas Keller ()
Art Director: Andreas Wagner ()
Designer: Daniel Soares ()
Account Supervisor: Sven Doerrenbaecher ()
Account Manager: Sonja Stockmann/Kete Stodtmeister/Ann-Kathrin Geertz/Nelli Walker ()
Production Company: (Markenfilm-Crossing)
Director: Daniel Schmidt ()
Cinematographer: Jakob Suess ()
Post Production: Tina Rentzsch ()
Producer: Martin Schoen ()
Programmer: Bettina Ackermann/Christopher Schultz ()
Editor: Daniel Schmidt ()
Describe the brief from the client
The objective of the promotion was to increase awareness for the Mercedes-Benz hydrogen fuel cell technology F-CELL. Furthermore, the activity’s aim was to let people experience that this technology is invisible to the environment. The overall objective of the campaign was to position Mercedes-Benz as the most innovative car manufacturer.
Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.
The hydrogen-fuel-cell-technology F-Cell produces 0.0 emissions. That means the car is invisible to the environment. This thought was executed with a spectacular promotion: by covering one side of the B-Class F-CELL with LEDs and the other side with a camera which transmitted images directly to the LEDs, we made the B-Class invisible.
During a one week long road show through Germany, people were able to experience the invisible car first hand. For the people that missed the car on the road, a documentary was posted online.
Describe the results in as much detail as possible.
The YouTube video was watched more than 10 million times. It received 60,000 likes, 14,000 comments and 21,000 users selected it as their favorite. Our documentary was ranked as No. 1 in the ‘Viral-Video-Charts’, beating superstars such as ‘Akon’ and ‘Pitbull’. During the campaign the search terms ‘F-CELL’ and ‘Invisible Mercedes’ enjoyed a disproportionate increase. Several international newspapers, TV and radio stations spreaded our story. But not only them: our target audience turned into brand ambassadors, too. Overall, the campaign gained over 450 million media impressions around the globe, helping to increase the awareness of Mercedes-Benz F-CELL technology by 43%.
The campaign promoting the F-CELL technology had to be just as innovative as the technology itself. Instead of a classical advertising campaign we developed an experiential one: the invisible drive. Since such a spectacular event hadn’t been seen before, it created a lot of buzz online as well as offline.