2019 Winners & Shortlists

Background.

Emirates Motor Company (EMC) the sole distributor of Mercedes-Benz in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain that has achieved a phenomenal growth and success from 1962. The campaign was to focus on the new models ranging from the A-Class, C-Class, S-Class and G-Class. All are iconic, well reputed models with an often preference by the UAE market. Mercedes-Benz primary objective was to drive growth in sales across the different car categories. The challenge was understanding the diversified nature of the UAE market, one that consists of a multi-cultural community and identifying the niche target audience of luxury car lovers. Media objectives were: • To Cultivate awareness and enhance engagement for all categories of the new Mercedes 2018, targeting the C-level executives • To attain quality leads that will result in a test drive and eventually drive purchases

Describe the creative idea.

When individuals get promoted, the first thing they do is tell their loved ones and then share their pride and achievement with their peers and market professionals, by updating their career move/new position on social media. We identified Linked In as the most significantly used platform by consumers for updating their titles/positions. Social Media is a powerful tool for data collection and testing analytics . Upon updating their positions, EMC through LinkedIn would automatically send a personalised In Mailer to the C-executives, being the very first to congratulate them by communicating directly and personally on the new well-deserved position and describing the new Mercedes model that fits best with their new role. As Mercedes-Benz also shares the same quality as the target audience which is being driven by achievement, it acted as a perfect partner on the target audience’s road to success and created a positive brand association.

Describe the strategy.

After conducting the research to better understand the target audience's behaviour towards buying a new car, we found two insights: 1. New buyers because they are new to the country. 2. Existing buyers looking to upgrade their cars. Our audience is in a constant pursuit to upgrade their lifestyle and social/professional status, so during this emotional moment when the consumers’ mind is set for a lifestyle change thus in a receptive mode, they can easily be influenced when looking for means of lifestyle upgrades; EMC capitalized on this real time moment & behaviour and leveraged this emotional motivator by implementing Creative Programmatic Optimization. This allowed the experience to be specifically tailored and customized to the audience. We went beyond the traditional advertising on social media the way the competition does, we looked at creating impressions rather than just buying impressions, buying real time moments rather than just ad space.

Describe the execution.

The InMail campaign provided EMC with a tailored campaign in terms of relevance and context to their brand. LinkedIn’s in-the-moment target and the ability to apply various parameters, allowed the platform to identify those career moves and target them with a relevant message. One of these parameters was a set of pre-defined job titles to target, and based on these titles, LinkedIn estimates the salary bracket thus communicating with them the model that best fits among the various range of vehicles. This allowed us to promote all the different cars instead of focusing on one type. The audience that showed interest by signing up, would receive the car on their doorstep for a chance to experience & test drive it for two days. The execution helped in building a connection and a sense of engagement throughout the 2 days trial, unlike the usual test drive that offer 2 hours only.

List the results.

This is a media first and has never been implemented before at least for this region. Our campaign strategy was noticed by the competition which led to suppliers proposing the same execution to other clients/brands. The in-Mailer campaign had a huge success whereby 82% of the test drives converted into sales.