Challenge:
As Mercedes-Benz celebrated 125 years of innovation, competitors had positioned the brand as old and stodgy. At RAZORFISH, Our challenge was to introduce the legendary automaker to a younger generation of consumers.
Idea
We created a new campaign — Get 4 Tweets, drive 1 mile: The Mercedes-Benz Tweet Race to the Super Bowl. The contest comprised three days, four teams and 1,400 miles. Their fuel: TWEETS.
In February 2011, four two-person driving teams recruited on Facebook embarked on the challenge, powered only by their online supporters’ tweets. Teams were in charge of creating engagement to literally drive them forward in real Mercedes-Benz vehicles.The race was conducted on Twitter and chronicled in real time at www.mbtweetrace.com, generating vast amounts of wholly unfiltered content from teams and supporters — and bringing every aspect of the competition to life. As the bond between participants grew, the race reached millions of people and connected the brand with a new audience.
Results
- 15% increase in visits to MBUSA.com
- 7% INCREASE in test drives
- 150,000+ tweets
- 25MM reached
- Ultimately, 27,000+ active participants generated more than 150,000+ tweets, reaching close to 25 million people
At the launch of the campaign, Mercedes-Benz had very few Twitter followers.
- By the races’ conclusion, Facebook following grew to over 77,000, followers on Twitter: 150,739
The campaign generated:
- 1,949 race applicants
- 72,000 new Facebook fans
- 27,953 Active Participants
- More than 545MM Twitter impressions, including 21,000 active participants.
- The Tweet Race videos reached #2 on the Ad Age viral video chart with over 2MM video views
- One of the team’s hash tags became a trending topic during the race.
- Video Views: 24,919,018
- People Reached on Twitter: 143,070,159
PR Impressions: 545,425,558
• A 4% increase in consideration Y/Y
• A 7% increase in scheduling a test drive
• A 6% increase in first-time owners/leases
• Sentiment score for MBUSA brand and vehicle increased by 6%
• MBUSA.com visitors increased 5%