• by Tanya Gazdik , 9 hours ago

Mercedes-Benz is highlighting the brand’s aspirational characteristics in a spot that touts “that first Mercedes feeling.”

The 30-second spot, “Made It,” from Merkley+Partners, is actually a retail spot, allowing dealers to attach a special offer at the end. But it has a dual function as a brand spot, says Melody Lee, Mercedes-Benz CMO.

“I think there's a lot of debate in the automotive industry about brand versus retail or brand versus performance,” Lee told Marketing Daily during the Marketing: Automotive conference at the New York Auto Show. “I think we demonstrate with this campaign that we can do both.”

The spot shows a range of first-time Mercedes-Benz buyers proudly showing of their new wheels to friends, family and social media followers. It features high-energy music, “O Me O My," from Son Little and voiceover from Jon Hamm, the voice of Mercedes-Benz in North America. 

“We have a lot of conversations about how we can have storyline-driven, retail creative,” Lee says. “It doesn't always just need to be running footage of a car, with the standard offer at the end. We can do and should do more, especially as a luxury brand.”

The spot features the brand’s lowest price, entry-level vehicles: CLA (which starts at $44,400), GLA ($43,000) and GLB ($45,800). 

“You could see just from the casting and the talent that's in the spot, this is a very youthful one,” Lee says. “This is one aimed at those who may not be in our brand yet and we want to show them that the cars are there for them and the cars are accessible for them and that they can get into it and kind of recreate that ‘first Mercedes feeling’ that a lot of people do talk about.”

The spot also helps the brand to be more aspirational.

“I'll just say this out loud because it's an elephant in the room that I'll just address: We're the most expensive brand in luxury,” Lee says. “We have a price positioning that means that sometimes we need to remind people that they can get into the brand.”

During the pandemic, a lot of former lease customers ended up buying their vehicles, she says. 

“But all automotive companies, especially luxury, really depend on these maturities because they bring that crop of customers back into the store because their three-year lease is up,” she says. “But because of the disruptions of the pandemic period, we lost a little bit of those lease returns coming back, which means we have to bring people back into the brand.”

The automaker is doing it in a variety of ways, even going back to the customers who did buy the cars, to try to entice them into a new vehicle. 

“But we also need new people to come in,” Lee says. “And it's not just about selling a car to someone who wants one now, it's also about selling the car or the brand to someone who's going to eventually be ready to buy it. So that's what these campaigns are intended to do: show that aspiration, show them that it's accessible, get 'em attracted to the idea of becoming part of the Mercedes-Benz world. Again, we have to get the next generation. It's not about diversifying to talk about diversification. It’s good business; we’ve got to get to them.”

The brand already has a head start on other luxury brands. Based on Strategic Vision’s New Vehicle Experience Study, Mercedes-Benz has the youngest customer in luxury.

“We do really well,” Lee says “We're younger than BMW and Lexus.”