Mercedes & Millennials

In the past, Mercedes-Benz has generally appealed to an older demographic. Within the last several years, the company has refreshed their strategy in order to market to Millennials. Mercedes-Benz saw the younger demographic as a new area of opportunity for several reasons. For one, the market size is quite large. There are now more Millennials than there are Baby Boomers so companies want to attract the massive demographic at an earlier age. Another reason for marketing to Millennials is to provide them with a product throughout their lives with progressively higher priced products as they move up in income brackets. They want to develop a sense of brand loyalty in young adults.

A great example of a campaign that appealed to Millennials was when Mercedes-Benz released their first compact SUV, the GLA, about a year ago. The company used a combination of Instagram and Facebook to turn a hashtag into a digital marketing phenomenon. Mercedes-Benz recruited top “Instagram Influencers” (celebrities, athletes, and photographers) each with at least half a million followers. They were equipped with a GLA to embark on a cross-country excursion where they were encouraged to document their road trip on Instgram using the hashtag #GLAPacked.

As this campaign was being executed, there was a related contest taking place for Instagram users. The rules were to find a clear 54” x 54” space, lay out your cargo, and take a picture and share it. The individual with the most creative cargo layout would win a 3-day road trip with the GLA inspired by their cargo (flights, luxury accommodations, and spending money would be provided).

Mercedes-Benz USA general manager of marketing services Eric Jillard said in a case study detailing the campaign, “Using Instagram as part of our digital advertising mix means we can meet young buyers on their home turf. With branding advertising on both Instagram and Facebook, site visits jumped more than 50 percent. Combine that with our direct response Facebook campaign and the impact on lift was tenfold, driving users to our GLA model page to further interact with the product.”

I think a large portion of the success of this campaign was due to the fact that Mercedes-Benz went out on a limb deciding to market their new vehicle to a rejuvenated demographic. They used the right social media mediums in doing so, and they successfully recruited all the right influencers to make the GLA seem like the next hot product on the market.