Mercedes Benz Italia S.P.A. recently launched its limited edition car model, the Smart Fortwo ParisBlue. The all-electric car combines comfort with elegance, and is available to rent.
Mercedes with its agency, Omnicom Media Group, partnered with Outbrain to promote the new vehicle through a Native ad campaign. Thanks to Outbrain’s proprietary technology and data, Mercedes was able to reach a qualified audience with a higher purchase potential.
The campaign’s performance was evaluated with an online survey by Nielsen which measured brand awareness and engagement KPIs. The study was conducted with two audiences – an exposed group of consumers who interacted with the brand’s content on the Outbrain network, and a control group that was not first exposed to the brand.
Step #1
Mercedes promoted the Smart Fortwo ParisBlue landing page through Outbrain’s premium publisher network.
Step #2
Two groups were created: one that was “exposed” (viewed the video) and one “controlled” (not exposed to the video). Consumers who clicked on the native ad and visited the landing page were qualified as the exposed group. Through retargeting, the exposed audience was then invited to complete an online survey. The other group, identified by negative retargeting, was shown a native ad on their next visit to a network site, asking them to respond to the same survey.
Step #3
The study, analysed and certified by Nielsen, showed better results for the exposed group, which had a distinctly more favourable perception of the brand, as well as a greater propensity to purchase.
We are very pleased with the results achieved through our partnership with Outbrain. Outbrain’s personalised content recommendations, distributed across a network of premium publishers, allowed us to enhance the awareness of our new car and record excellent results in terms of brand awareness and propensity to buy.”
