Task
Mercedes-Benz wanted to raise the awareness of its high spec van, the Vito Sport in order to take a bigger slice of a sector (a van that's ideal for both work and leisure pursuits) dominated by Volkswagen's omnipresent Transporter van.
Solution
We proposed that the vehicle should be associated with the mountain biking community to promote the Vito Sport as their vehicle of choice, rather like VW’s association with the surfing world.
The backbone of the campaign was a deal we set up with Animal clothing. In 2009 the Vito Sport became a title sponsor of the established Animal Bike Tour.
This was supported with a multi-channel on and offline campaign. This included TTL ads, literature, a microsite and sponsorship of professional cyclists, promo teams, van liveries, competitions, and the posting of podcasts and videos on social channels, which at the time was pretty forward thinking within the commercial vehicle sector.
The campaign proved itself to be hugely successful with budgets increasing year on year. The introduction of CGI imagery thanks to the success of the New Vito Campaign helped open up new creative possibilities. Sponsorships of professional athletes broadened too to help capture the appeal of owning such a vehicle. Sports covered now included motocross, superbikes, water sports and snowboarding.
Result
Thanks to the awareness campaign the ranking of the Vito Sport as a cool and stylish vehicle rose by 27% over a 3 year period.
The campaign was nominated for a Marketing Week Engage Award.
Campaign Identity
Video content was shared across social channels. In 2010 this type of content was new and fresh and really helped to pull in and enagage the mountain bilke, kite surfing, motocross and road racing communities.
As the campaign gathered momentum and success so budgets increased allowing for the production of beatifully crafted CGI imagery produced by Happy Finish.
Credit: Cygnus