Mercedes-Benz Tries The Route On Amazon’s Home Page

Customers flock to the popular website to find information about various products. Why not about the new E-Class model, says Natanael Sijanta, the carmaker’s director of marketing communications.

Advertising your new product on an ecommerce site that doesn’t actually sell it might seem counter-intuitive, but that was the approach taken by Mercedes-Benz when it struck a deal to promote its new E-Class model on Amazon’s home page.

Mercedes-Benz Cars’ director of marketing communications Natanael Sijanta explained the thinking behind the campaign alongside Seth Dallaire, vice-president of global advertising sales at Amazon Media Group in a session on the second day of the Dmexco Exposition and Conference in Cologne, Germany.

“We constantly look for innovative ways to talk to customers,” Sijanta explained. “We have to ensure the customer gets into the car, because we know that the moment that happens, we have the highest conversion rate in the industry.”

According to Dallaire, Amazon’s approach combines programmatic identification of Mercedes’s target audience with a recognition that consumers come to the site expecting to find product reviews.

“Some marketers feel that, if they don’t sell their product on Amazon, it’s not a good place to market them. But Amazon customers expect to find information on products on the site. We have a lot of customers who drive cars, and buying a car is one of the most considered purchases people make.

“We have over 1,000 reviews of the top-selling toothpaste on the site, and that’s traditionally considered a low-consideration product. If that’s what customers want, the approach lends itself very well to higher-consideration categories,” Dallaire said.

The campaign was piloted in four markets—France, Germany, Japan, and the U.K.—and adapted to account for different perceptions of the brand in each one. Sijanta said it had been so successful that Mercedes was thinking about rolling it out to other territories.

As well as working on further projects with Amazon, Sijanta said Mercedes was always on the lookout for new ideas.

“They have to be based on data, and they have to deliver great customer experiences,” he said. “We want not just to be a respected brand, but one that is loved, and we’re looking for ideas that will make us more approachable.”

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