• New York Times, Friday, June 19, 2009 12:31 PM

Mercedes-Benz USA has tapped Razorfish, a unit of Microsoft, for the online component Of a new marketing campaign, which is trying a different way to get customers to buy cars as it introduces its updated E-Class Series.

The ad campaign for the midsize car, available as a sedan or a coupe, is the company's biggest in two years, estimated at $75 million. It does not talk about great value or good deals. Instead, it focuses on the cars' technology and heritage, a somewhat standard approach for the brand. The online campaign will include home page advertisements on sites like Bloomberg.com and CNBC.com.

The E-Class update is meant to turn around an alarming sales slide for Mercedes, which is owned by Daimler. Its United States sales have declined 28.7% this year from the same time in 2008, according to the company. May sales were even further off, falling 33.4% from May 2008. The United States turned in the worst showing of any geographic region in May.

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