Mercedes-Benz UK

The Mercedes-Benz C-Class Cabriolet

Social media has become a great tool for marketing in many organizations and companies. Companies can now connect with consumers and get feedback quicker and much more easily than ever before. Social media and the internet are also great platforms for placing advertisements. More people than ever before are connected to the internet, allowing companies to reach more potential customers and be more closely connected to existing customers.

An example of a company's success with a web campaign is Mercedes Benz UK and their ads on Instagram. The company has its own Instagram account page and posts ads on it as well as in the Stories feature. In 2012 Mercedes-Benz UK first started using Instagram as an advertising platform. Their first ad campaign on the platform was for the Mercedes-Benz C-Class Cabriolet. They used Instagram stories to create short video ads that were optimized to be viewed on the screen of a phone and ended up being viewed by thousands of people.

The flashiness and brevity of the ads, the current popularity of Instagram, and the ease of use of social media are all factors that played into this ad campaign's success. 

Quick video content is very popular these days because there are so many messages being sent at us online, that we only have a little time to spare with each piece of media content. Not to mention many of the younger generations have a shorter attention span. The idea to use Stories on Instagram takes advantage of these details. 

Social media is more accessible and popular than ever these days, and it surprising if someone if the younger generations don't have some sort of social media account. Not to mention many people are glued to their phones. A lot of people I know will be scrolling through Instagram in their spare time: when they wake up, before class, waiting in lines and just to relax. Social media is made to be highly addictive Instagram is a prime real estate to reach people on their phones because its based around images. Something like Facebook is harder to view on a phone and requires more mental focus.  

The car company has since reached more than 2.6 million people with these Instagram advertisements and saw a 9 point increase in their ad recall. The company is obviously doing something right with their advertising strategies. Mercedes-Benz remains one of the largest and most famous car companies today. 


More on the Mercedes Benz success story here.