The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Creative Works Advertising

Nicki Minaj gets in the passenger seat of the Mercedes A-Class in new campaign

Author

By Kyle O'Brien, Creative Works Editor

April 5, 2018 | 3 min read

We’ve all become accustomed to Jon Hamm’s assured delivery for Mercedes, but the brand takes a decidedly different tone in promoting its A-Class, featuring a more casual voice over and a cameo by pop star Nicki Minaj.

Mercedes A-Class

Nicki Minaj for Mercedes A-Class

In the campaign, ‘Just Like You,’ we see that the new Mercedes A-Class is kind of like a smart-phone on wheels, allowing for automation and personalization with plenty of shiny features. The campaign from Antoni in Berlin focuses on the way it adapts to the driver, not the other way around.

In ‘Just Like You,’ Antoni placed people and their stories at the center of the work, using a light-hearted tone. The campaign’s hero spot, ‘Like You’ highlights A-Class’s new MBUX control system. “Hey Mercedes, it’s getting hot in here,” says a woman from the back seat, clearly getting hot and heavy with her boyfriend. But the real star of the ad is Nicki Minaj, who broke a three-month social media silence to appear in the commercial as part of Mercedes’ partnership with music streaming company Tidal. She appears in the passenger seat of the vehicle after the driver asks the car to play her some hip-hop.

In the remaining ads, Antoni points out the human observations that inspired the A-Class’s product features. ‘Instinct’ helps a man realize how important collision-avoidance technology can be – moments before he trips and plants his face in the pavement. ‘Touch’ shows how irresistible it can be to push buttons and mess with stuff, which is acceptable in the A-Class but not at a museum. Conversely, ‘Habits’ raises the important issue of having all of your stuff in exactly the places you wanted it to be – and delivers the line: “If Kate ever finds out who switched her desk chair, she will make them pay,” says the voice, Sway Clarke, a Toronto born and Berlin based singer.

Antoni, seeing that the car can interact with the driver via touch or voice – you can unlock it with your phone, you can configure everything from display design to seat position so that two different drivers have two completely driving experiences – decided on the tagline, “The new A-Class. Just like you.”

The films were directed by Brian Beletic, while photographer Tom Craig, in collaboration with stylist Bay Garnett, created still images that blend fashion, car design and technology. It was shot on location in Madrid and will appear globally in TV, social media, digital, out-of-home, and print.

Mercedes: advert-body-1 by Antoni

By Mercedes

Overall Rating 5/5

Vote now
Creative Works Advertising

Content created with:

Mercedes

Mercedes-Benz is a global automobile manufacturer and a division of the German company Daimler AG. The brand is known for luxury vehicles, buses, coaches, and lorries....

Find out more

More from Creative Works

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +