Not many two-and-a-half-minute long product advertisements would have me asking for more or leave me breathlessly excited.
This Mercedes-Benz EQC ad did. The ad is by the agency Antoni Garage, and also works as a scintillating music video for Canadian musician The Weeknd’s single, Blinding Lights.
What’s so unique in this ad? Let me list the things that caught my eye.
1. The most important part of any ad is to create desire and draw your attention. The Weeknd is a massively popular artist and for him to launch his single through a music video featuring Mercedes’ cars is a brand endorsement 101 win. To be sure, the song is in the background and the car is the hero – as a good promotional video should be.
2. The way Mercedes’ incredibly rich automobile history has been woven so subtly and seamlessly into the music video is a masterstroke. For the uninitiated, you may simply see older models of Mercedes being showcased all through the ads. But the showcase has a scheme.
The first showcase is a series of recreations (enacted) based on Mercedes’ history. This set has 3 segments.
- 1886: Carl Benz’s first-ever public car drive in Mannheim with the Benz ‘patent-motorwagen’.
- 1904: Pierre de Caters’ land speed record in his DMG Mercedes Simplex, at 97.25 miles per hour
- 1920s: Ernes Merck’s win at the International Klausen Race in Switzerland using a Mercedes-Benz Type S
The second showcase is based on an assortment of classic Mercedes cars from history without any specific/known people or historical moments. This includes,
- 1930s: Mercedes-Benz 170 S Cabriolet being shipped to a remote location
- 1940s: Mercedes-Benz 320 Cabriolet D being used as an escape car by a couple
- 1950s: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Coupé Gullwing (named after the doors opening like the wings of a seagull)
- 1970s: Mercedes-Benz S 123 Station Wagon being used as a family/highway car
- 1980s: Mercedes-Benz S Class BR 116 that was very popular in China
3. The video is so much more interesting and exciting to watch not just because of the showcase but also because of the way the different segments transition from one to another, in a fluid hand-off. Observe the transitions:
- 0:23: The Weeknd drives out of a tunnel. The next shot is that of Carl Benz driving out of a tunnel, in 1886!
- 0:42: Pierre de Caters looks back via his visor after his land speed record in 1904. The next shot is that of the car’s rear and side windows’ perspectives, which moves to the car The Weeknd is in.
- 0:47: The Weeknd enters another tunnel. The next shot is that of Ernes Merck driving at the International Klausen Race in the 1920s from the perspective of the car’s rear exhaust.
- 0:58: The music stops for less than a second as the screen freezes on Ernes Merck after the victory and she throws her helmet down. The next shot is that of a man coming out of the water to see the Mercedes-Benz 170 S Cabriolet in the 1930s.
- 1:12: The Weeknd drives on and the next shot as the scene focuses on the road and moves to Mercedes-Benz 320 Cabriolet D in the 1940s.
- 1:24: The girl who escapes in the Mercedes-Benz 320 Cabriolet D in the 1940s looks back at her mother as her headscarf flies away and the next shot is a masked man looking back (in the direction of the girl in the previous shot) inside his Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Coupé Gullwing in the 1950s.
- 1:36: The Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Coupé Gullwing is part of a film shooting and as it swerves the focus is on the wheel spokes to move to The Weeknd’s car performing the same action.
4. From 1:53, there is a montage of the brand’s logo even as the logo stays in the center and the rest of the scene keeps shifting rapidly. The first shot of a red car is the best as it shows a hand grabbing and breaking the Mercedes-Benz badge!! That’s a validation of the brand’s immense popularity even among thieves 🙂
5. The kid at the beginning of the video asks The Weeknd, “Wow, you drive electric?”. (This, after The Weeknd sees his car charging, on his phone.) The Weeknd gives him a look and then the historical showcase starts almost as if The Weeknd is going through the history of Mercedes in his mind… of how the car brand has moved across history to reach the point it is at now, in the form of an electric car. When the showcase ends, The Weeknd offers the money-shot: “What do you mean? I drive a Mercedes!”. That’s a masterpiece of a dialog making the electric variant seem perfectly normal and not a new thing to be wondering about, and reiterates why people buy the brand – it’s not because it is a petrol, diesel or electric, but because they trust the brand more than variants or the technological specificities.
The final shot “It’s more than electric. It’s a Mercedes” asserts Mercedes’ arrival in the electric car category in style, long after Tesla has made it ultra-cool.
6. The partnership with The Weeknd extends beyond just this video. This was the first official video for his new song at that time (November 2019) – Blinding Lights, an 80s/retro style song. In January 2020, The Weeknd launched the official music video for the song that too featured the Mercedes-Benz EQC extensively!
As an artist/promotional tie-up, this effort is exceptionally well done, using the artist’s new single incidentally while retaining the focus firmly on the product. It’s almost like we are watching a catchy new song’s entertaining music video while also being in awe of the product that evolves all through the video!