Mercedes-Benz wanted to highlight their digital platform selling Approved Used cars. But many people are not comfortable making a big purchase like a used car online. Our campaign needed to inspire trust while also being watchable and entertaining.

Thinking
We based our strategy on the fact that what you get from online searches doesn’t always match up to the promise – unless you go through a company you can trust. We set our campaign against the backdrop of online dating because this was an environment that our target audience would relate to and engage with. One in five UK relationships now start online, and 25% of Britons have at least one dating app on their phone. (infogram, Telegraph)

Doing
We wrote Love Match, a humorous film packed with dating disasters before our heroine finds her perfect partner (the car). Although the campaign began life as a TVC, we had social and digital in mind from the start. Rather than simply cut the film down for social (which rarely works well), Love Match was planned to be modular from the start, so that each of the dates and the final resolution could be used as short 10-second hits, banner ads, as a 30” TV spot, or enjoyed on YouTube as a 60” “director’s cut”.

​The campaign ran for four years, representing excellent ROI for Mercedes-Benz, and is a testament to the thought and flexibility that we put into it from the beginning.

Commissioned by AMV BBDO. Directed by Ben Taylor, produced by MindsEye.