New Mercedes S Class - Reclaiming It's Heritage?

MERCEDES STAKES ITS GROUND WITH LAUNCH OF NEW S-CLASS

New Marketing Initiative Touts Heritage, High-Style and Industry-Leading Technology

Montvale, N.J. (January 30, 2005) – As Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) prepares to deliver its new technological tour-de-force, the 2007 S-Class, to dealer showrooms across the country, the company will debut a new advertising campaign this evening. The campaign which includes broadcast, print and internet components, marries the company’s storied 120-year history as the originator of the automobile, the technological prowess of the brand and the allure of the flagship S-Class model line which has shaped the upper echelon of the luxury market for five decades.

The campaign for the new S-Class, now in its ninth generation, will kick off today and air during the week on such top-rated programming as Lost, Desperate Housewives, CSI, Grey’s Anatomy, Two and a Half Men, 24, as well as the State of the Union Address.

The broadcast campaign includes two brand advertisements and a launch ad for the new S-Class. “More so than any other model, the S-Class represents the values and legendary reputation that the Mercedes-Benz brand is built on. It raises the bar again within the luxury segment,” said Scott Keogh, general manager of marketing communications for Mercedes-Benz USA. “The advertising reflects how our heritage drives what we do today, the enormous amount of time and effort that goes into any vehicle that bears the three-pointed star and how all of that comes to the ultimate expression in the S-Class. It’s that expression of passion and drive that unites the S-Class and its owners.”

The first brand spot, called “The Race” (:60/:30), is done in a mythic story-telling mode that utilizes Mercedes-Benz’s victory in the world’s first automobile race in 1894 as a metaphor for the company’s century-long challenge to continually outdo itself. On a race track that, Brigadoon-like, exists in its own special time, one iconic generation of Mercedes-Benz overtakes the next, as the narrator intones the story of a company “… that’s never looked back … never stopped pushing forward …” The story builds triumphantly, with the latest Mercedes-Benz earning its place on the track that is today’s stage. At the conclusion, the cutting-edge SLR McLaren supercar pulls into place as voiceover states, “The race that really matters … the race with ourselves … is never over …”

What goes into this drive to continuously overtake oneself is the subject of a second brand spot, titled “Weld Them” (:30). Set to a fast-paced contemporary techno-beat, a robotic voice describes the dozens of processes that occur behind the scene of every Mercedes: “Weld them. Dip them. Test them. Build them. Wreck them. Freeze them. Nano-paint them. Lock them. Mold them. Roll them. Crush them. Shut them. Draft them. And Pre-safe them …” ending with the question “What goes into making the best cars in the world? You have no idea.”

The last spot in the broadcast trilogy is uniquely S-Class, featuring a drive through a surreal world of ethereal beauty to convey the aura of security, pride, well-being and control that surrounds the new-generation S-Class. The spot, called “Turns Into” (:30), focuses on such “transformative” elements of the vehicle such as seats with massage capability, infrared night vision, the power of a new 5.5 liter V8 engine and the athletic yet graceful styling. The spot ends saying, “It turns the mundane into the magnificent.”

The broadcast component of the campaign, which was created by MBUSA’s lead agency Merkley + Partners (New York), begins tonight on national cable channels such as Bravo, CNN, ESPN, Fox News, History and National Geographic and in Primetime on spot television. Local broadcast buys will also include reality shows to sporting events, including coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics. The campaign will be featured in March during the broadcast of the Academy Awards in 20 top markets and nationally during the NCAA basketball tournament games during “March Madness” on CBS.

A complementary print campaign includes such executions as “Even Cars Need a Hero”; “At the top of the automobile industry is one company. At the top of that company is one car”; “You’re not buying a car. You’re buying a belief”; and “At our best when things are at their worst.”

“The print component of the campaign compliments the broadcast in unabashedly reminding people of the brand's leadership,” said Alex Gellert, president and CEO of Merkley + Partners, “and then, most importantly, articulating in straightforward language the ‘proof points’ that make the brand ‘Unlike Any Other’.”

Print advertising will run in major magazines, such as BusinessWeek, Forbes, Fortune, New York Times Magazine and across golf and thought-leader titles. Newspaper advertising includes the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily and Barron’s.

Starting in February coinciding with the retail launch of the vehicle, S-Class advertising will be seen at online websites for, Edmunds (edmunds.com), Kelley Blue Book, (kbb.com), Car and Driver (caranddriver.com), Road &Track (roadandtrack.com), and Forbes (forbes.com), among others.

Marketing Campaign

The advertising is part of a broad based marketing platform which capitalizes on the strong interest on the part of consumers in the new S-Class which includes internet marketing, direct mail, product placement and events.

An S-Class microsite (http://www.mbusa.com/microsite/s-class/index.jsp ) invites viewers to “tour” the new S550 with the guidance of a virtual concierge. Since it was launched December 15, 2005, the microsite has had over 110,000 visitors. The site has recently been enhanced with a 3-minute walk-around tour of the S550.

Over the holidays, in partnership with Saks Fifth Avenue, 20 special edition versions of the upcoming $145,000 Mercedes-Benz S600 were made available exclusively to Saks Fifth Avenue Holiday Catalog shoppers. All 20 vehicles sold-out in an astonishing 6 minutes and 51 seconds -- one car every 20 seconds, or roughly $6,900 spent per second. 700 more would-be shoppers were waiting on-hold to buy.

Always a coveted “accessory” in the entertainment community, the S-Class is also scheduled to appear in a variety of TV shows and movies in 2006, including The Devil Wears Prada.

About the S-Class

The successor to a line of premium luxury vehicles that has pioneered a significant portion of the safety technology that is standard in today’s automobiles, the 2007 S550 takes the line a step further into the future with an all-new 5.5-liter V8 engine delivering 382 horsepower and 391 lb.-ft. of torque, the first of a new-generation V8 engine family featuring four-valve-per-cylinder technology and variable valve timing. Other technology includes, Distronic-Plus radar-based cruise control, the industry’s first active infrared night-view system, the next generation of our industry leading Pre-Safe system – packaged in an aggressive, athletic design and powered by a more powerful V8 engine. The new S550, with suggested retail pricing of $85, 400, will begin arriving at Mercedes-Benz dealerships the week of February 7.

About Mercedes-Benz

MBUSA, headquartered in Montvale, New Jersey, is responsible for the sales, marketing and service of all Mercedes-Benz and Maybach products in the United States. In 2005, MBUSA achieved an all-time sales record of 224,421 new vehicles, setting the highest sales volume ever in its history and achieving twelve consecutive years of sales growth. More information on MBUSA and its products can be found on the Internet at www.mbusa.com and www.maybachusa.com.