Mercedes Benz film celebrates its founding woman

Storytelling and marketing are the new power couple in brand development. Mercedes Benz is leveraging multimedia to target new audiences and arouse their enthusiasm in the brand.

Released in honour of International Woman’s Day, Mercedes Benz’ new brand video celebrates the vision, conviction and confidence of its founding woman – Bertha Benz, wife and business partner of Carl Benz.

The new film – created in partnership with Berlin agency Antoni and directed by Sebastian Strasser – depicts the story of the world’s first long distance drive in a car from Mannheim to Pforzheim, Germany that Bertha and her two sons completed in 1888. At a time when people were sceptical of this new technology, she understood its potential and was determined to prove that it worked.

It aligns with the company’s ‘She’s Mercedes’ initiative which launched in 2015 to support women within and outside of the company. The automaker set goals to increase women in leadership roles to at least 20% by 2020 and has increased its mentoring programmes, events, networking events and training courses as well. It is the second film created by the automaker paying homage to its fearless founder, the first was released on Instagram IGTV this past August.

The film is also part of Mercedes Benz’ on going initiative to position itself apart from its traditional consumer base of ‘staid old men’ and appeal to a more diverse, younger audience. The transformation commenced in 2017 with the launch of the first of four films in the ‘Grow Up’ series. These brand videos deal with the themes of new parenthood, career satisfaction, broken hearts and dysfunctional families, themes that resonate with the 20 and 30 somethings of any generation. The automaker has showcased how storytelling can be used to shift brand identity, share a company’s core values, cultivate an active community, target new audiences and tell the stories that matter most to them.