Marketing on Instagram – Mercedes Benz GLA

Marketing on social media platforms is no longer an uncharted territory, but for many brands the challenge they face is in creating content and campaigns that are both innovative, and completely engaging for their target market. It’s quite easy to create great looking content, but to create a branded experience on these channels is much more difficult, and especially so on Instagram where users have limited functionality with the mobile application.

Mercedes Benz, however, have stepped up to the plate and created an ‘Insta-experience’ through which followers of the brand can create a customised version of the Mercedes Benz GLA (their latest product offering). I’ll save you a detailed explanation of how this actually goes down in lieu of a short video explaining the same.
As an avid Instagram user myself, I’m immediately drawn to anything I can repeatedly tap my fingers on, and the ‘Choose your GLA’ experience wholly delivers on this front with a slew of ‘options’ that you can select in the process of creating your own Mercedes Benz vehicle. It’s clear that the campaign was intended to have this affect, as mentioned by the Mark Aikman, department manager of Digital Marketing and CRM at Mercedes-Benz USA; ‘Instagram is obviously a platform where people are to have a little bit of fun. We’re talking about the product in a channel that’s really authentic for the millennial consumer and for our brand. This [campaign] teaches them about the product and gives them something enjoyable to do.’

Although I can’t attest to whether this is an Instagram-first campaign, it’s a communication model that definitely has the potential to catch on, and could work for many other brands seeking to create a similar customised consumer experience on this platform.

To experience this campaign for yourself, visit Build Your Own GLA.

Salil Kumar
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School