Mercedes SLS AMG/iPAD
Issue 16 | September 2010
Agency
Proximity BBDO Paris
Creative Team
Account Director: Nicolas Contassot; Account Manager: Florence Bonneau; Project Manager: Marion Moulin; Creative Director: Kurt Novack, Cedric Gueret; Artistic Director: Fanny Fichez; Copy Writer: Aurore Giuly; Model Maker: Anais Marcuzzi
Other Credits
Freebird Associate Director: Eric Lemoine
Date
May 2010
Background
The SLS AMG is the latest 'supercar' from Mercedes, a modern reincarnation of the legendary ‘Gullwing’ 1951 300 SL. Only a privileged few will be able to afford this car.
Objective : To give a specific target group ? French Premier League footballers - the opportunity to discover and try out the new SLS AMG. A target group of luxury car enthusiasts, continually on the lookout for innovations and exclusive designs. Arouse the target group's interest in the entire Mercedes-Benz AMG range, the brand's sporty and exclusive series.
Idea
The first idea was to target a very specific group of people. Football players in the French Premier League. The second was to link two very modern, very iconic objects with each other, the SLS AMG and the Apple iPad.
One month before the official Apple launch in France, France's top 220 Premier League players were individually mailed an iPad , loaded with an application to show them the new Mercedes. First, they saw a film about the car, then they were able to play a game in which they could drive it, virtually.
Lastly, they were invited to try driving the real thing with a personally arranged test drive.
The campaign was summed up in the line “Touch your dream”,
Results
The campaign was summed up in the line “Touch your dream” and a large number of the target group responded.
Our Thoughts
There are several things about this I really like. Firstly, the targeting. Who can you best talk to about a very shiny, very expensive new toy? Obviously, some of the most highly paid boys on the planet. The second thing I like is the insight that these young guys are so shallow that they would be thrilled to get an iPad ahead of the official launch and thrilled to play with it. The third thing I like is that through the iPad, Mercedes now have a conduit through which to continue talking to these VIP customers as and when they have even more expensive new toys to talk about.
Ingenious, at a time when most people in the media world were looking at the iPad for what it could do, Proximity Paris looked at it for what it was.