Agency: Agency Republic, London

Roles: Project Manager

Project Type: Sales Promo / Digital Campaign / Game

Case Study:

In 2007, Mercedes-Benz were launching their new generation CLC Coupe. Working with our sister agency Weapon7, we were tasked with using Direct Mail and Digital to engage potential buyers and drive visits to dealer. The previous generation had appealed to a a middle-aged plus audience and for this new slicker model, Mercedes-Benz wanted to target young professionals, who might normally be considering a Golf GTI or similar. At this point social media was in it’s infancy and did not offer advertising solutions and digital display campaigns driving to micro-sites were industry best-practise. To really shift the perceptions of the CLC by the younger market, we had the idea of being able to race around London on a virtual test drive. By creating a game, it could be sent to leads as a DM campaign, as a more engaging mechanic than the traditional brochure. We worked with a games developer to re-skin an existing CD-ROM racing game and with Mercedes-Benz to realise a 3D model of the new vehicle. Potential customers were able to spec their car to their tastes and then race it around the streets of London. Rather than static ads, we wanted to create some motion content to grab the attention of consumers. Video banners were in their infancy and they were generally used for existing TV Commercials. We didn’t have a TVC to play with, so with some creative budgeting, strong negotiation and a lot of will-power, we managed to facilitate a shoot of a global campaign quality TVC, at less than a tenth of the budget. We even shot on the Red Camera, of which there were only a few units at that time and were one of the first commercial productions to use it outside of Top Gear. The result was a hugely innovative campaign working across digital, DM and retail, providing a massive ROI.