Campaign Summary

To reach potential consumers, Mercedes-Benz revamped their user experience by providing quality, innovative, and superior content online and through mobile, which allowed consumers to find brand information and entertainment in newer, more easily accessible ways. 

Strategy and Execution

Because Mercedes-Benz is so innovative and built with such high standards, they’re often considered peerless in their class. Recognizing this, Mercedes-Benz wanted to bring the same level of quality to the way their customers experience the brand on the web and through mobile. To do this, two objectives were set: 

• Easily provide service and support, including dealer information, to existing customers.
  
  
• Potential consumers should find information and entertainment in a state-of-the-art way specific for mobile devices.

In order to provide superior user experience, highly optimized websites were built for smartphones, tablets, and the COMAND Online in-car system. Each device showcased the same information, but were designed with the look and feel of the device in mind. 

• Smartphones offered a straightforward mobile experience with top-notch design. Easily digestible nuggets of information were woven within entertaining content, like MB.tv.
  
  
• Tablets reached consumers in a lean-back setting with a lean-forward approach. Custom text and navigation featured special-content focus when the consumer was away from home. It was more like leafing through a magazine than researching car information.
  
  
• To reach future customers sitting in the driver’s seat of their current car — maybe an Audi or BMW — Mercedes created the world’s first automotive website that was specifically tailored to be displayed directly in cars. With the friendly brand takeover, future Mercedes-Benz clients got to see their potential future car via the navigation wheel in their current car’s dash console.

Results

Taking all markets and mobile devices into account, the number of page impressions increased in 2011 by an unprecedented 1,515 percent vs. 2010. The number of pages viewed per visitor rose 500 percent.

Results of a benchmarking study that included three competitors showed that Mercedes-Benz leads the field with regards to entertainment, value, and design. Furthermore, the Mercedes-Benz car configurator on smartphones, which is the main tool on a car manufacturer’s website, was evaluated as the benchmark as well.

Currently, 10 markets have adapted the smartphone and in-car version of the website, with approximately 20 markets following towards the end of the year. In August, the tablet version will roll out to 20 markets too.