Mercedes pays 71% less to drive dealership visits

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In the battle against climate change, the global community has set an ambitious target – to reach net zero by 2050. To honour this pledge, car manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz are helping to drive – and accelerate – sales of alternative vehicles, which are set to play a major role in achieving the zero-emissions target.

However, while sales of alternative vehicles are on the rise across Europe, the Spanish car market is complex. So, tasked with the launch of Mercedes’ new GLC SUV in Spain, the brand’s digital agency, Team X, chose to flex the full programmatic capabilities of digital out-of-home (DOOH).

Expanding the limits of digital advertising to drive performance

Mercedes is no stranger to running successful programmatic campaigns. But for this campaign, the brand challenged the agency to push the limits of digital advertising even further. The plan was to use its first-party data to define the brand’s audience according to their interests, behaviours, and demographics, all supported by third-party data to expand the campaign’s reach. Set to run in major cities around Spain – specifically high-end shopping districts and neighbourhoods where the brand’s target audience were most likely to be – the agency chose to run creatives showcasing the SUV’s performance, exclusivity, and luxury features.

To maximise the results from DOOH’s capabilities and data, the agency planned the campaign on The Trade Desk. They used the platform’s AutoAllocator feature to automatically move budget to the best-performing vectors. In practice, this meant ads were shown on the top-performing screens at specific times of day. Another feature the team activated was The Trade Desk’s cross-device attribution at person level, enabling them to match and measure impacted users with those who went on to visit Mercedes’ dealerships.

Sparking interest in an electric future

Thanks to the precision of its audience targeting in collaboration with The Trade Desk, this campaign delivered 70 per cent of impressions to the target audience. What’s more, it drove 71 per cent improvement in cost per acquisition (CPA) – the first-party data achieved 1.77 euros versus no data impressions at 6.29 euros. Mercedes-Benz dealerships reported incremental foot traffic, and the brand has gained valuable insights that will inform all future data-driven DOOH campaigns.

Download