Top Fortune 500 Brands Embrace Passenger’s On-Demand Platform to Collaborate and Co-Innovate with their Customers

Passenger today announced record-breaking sales results for its fiscal third quarter ending on Tuesday, Sept. 30. Passenger achieved bookings growth of 217 percent over its second fiscal quarter, and year over year growth of 692 percent, surpassing company forecasts. Many of the most iconic brands in the world use Passenger’s intuitive software-as-a-service platform and professional services to infuse the voice of the customer into their businesses.

New Passenger customers are global leaders in their respective categories, including:

• One of the top two online broadcast networks in the world
• A multi-billion dollar shipping and logistics services company
• A top automotive manufacturer
• A global leader in the beverage industry
• An American cable TV network
• A luxury lifestyle brand

In addition, Passenger renewed accounts with several large brands in the automotive, retail, media and entertainment industries. Customer retention for the quarter and all previous quarters since the Company was founded in 2005 remains 100%. Passenger attributes its high customer retention and revenue growth during the softening economy to the fact that brands value direct access and dialog with customers to shape products, marketing programs and advertising campaigns. This insight enables Passenger’s clients to spend less on the planning and execution of costly marketing initiatives and in designing new products.

"We saw strong customer traction in Q3, winning new accounts and expanding existing ones with some of the world’s top consumer, media and fashion brands," said Justin Cooper, co-founder and chief innovation + marketing officer, Passenger. "We attribute Passenger’s continued success to the real business value these brands are realizing from our unique blend of collaboration technology and community management services. ‘Community’ is a broadly interpreted term in the industry, but Passenger’s proven approach is explicitly geared towards helping our clients co-innovate with their customers in the areas of marketing, branding and product development."

In addition to record-breaking customer momentum, Passenger expanded its management team with the appointment of Samantha Skey to senior vice president of business development and general manager of the eastern region. Samantha joined Passenger from Alloy Media + Marketing, one of the country's largest providers of nontraditional media programs, where she served as executive vice president, strategic marketing. To carry on this momentum, Passenger will be announcing other senior level appointments in the near future, aimed at capitalizing on growth opportunities within the channel and internationally.

Exclusive Opportunity for Next Generation Luxury Vehicle Owners to Interact and Shape the Future of the Mercedes-Benz Brand

LOS ANGELES, November 17, 2008 ” Passenger, the technology leader in on-demand Customer Collaboration, today announced it has partnered with Mercedes-Benz USA to create Generation Benz, an exclusive online community for Generation Y customers to interact and collaborate with the teams at Mercedes-Benz. The Passenger-powered community provides an invite-only forum for members to converge around their shared enthusiasm for Mercedes-Benz and have a direct impact on shaping the future of the brand. Generation Benz will also serve as a valuable tool for the company to gather insight into the mindset and lifestyle of this demographic as it relates to current and future vehicles and the overall Mercedes-Benz brand.

“Mercedes-Benz has always been highly attuned to the voice of its loyal customer base, which has helped propel our brand to where it is today,” said Stephen Cannon, vice president of marketing, Mercedes-Benz USA. “When our customers join the brand, they tend to stay. Our Generation Benz community is a natural extension of our desire to broaden the Mercedes-Benz family, and establish a dialogue with future buyers to guide us with the design of our vehicles and direction of our brand.”

The name Mercedes-Benz is synonymous with luxury and is globally recognized as a high-end auto manufacturer that is dedicated to its customers. With the launch of Generation Benz, Mercedes-Benz aims to get to know the younger generation of current and future vehicle owners to broaden the company’s loyal following and shape the brand for the future. Using Passenger’s intuitive platform of social networking, customer collaboration and analytics tools, Mercedes-Benz is able to connect and engage with this community to elicit feedback and perspectives on vehicles, brand positioning and socio-cultural trends; preview upcoming advertising and marketing campaigns; and engage in live discussions to help continue the company’s rich history of innovation and luxury. With this community, Mercedes-Benz is recognizing the power of the voice of the customer, and changing the way luxury brands evolve to meet the needs of future generations.

“Generation Benz represents yet another innovative step in Mercedes-Benz’s brand evolution, and is the first of its kind in the luxury auto space,” said Justin Cooper, co-founder and chief innovation + marketing officer, Passenger. “It’s been an inspiration to work with the Mercedes-Benz team and witness first-hand how one of the most well-respected luxury brands engages a new audience and truly collaborates with its customers.”

About Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz USA, headquartered in Montvale, New Jersey, is responsible for the sales, marketing and service of all Mercedes-Benz and Maybach products in the United States. For over forty years, MBUSA has prided itself on its commitment to the customer by providing superior quality luxury vehicles coupled with outstanding customer support. More information on MBUSA and its products can be found on the Internet at www.mbusa.com and www.maybachusa.com.

As posted by Emily Chang from iMedia Connection.

By testing potential branding efforts on online community members, the company attempts to predict how upcoming advertising and marketing campaigns will be received and adjust accordingly. "Generation Benz represents yet another innovative step in Mercedes-Benz's brand evolution, and is the first of its kind in the luxury auto space," said Justin Cooper, Passenger's co-founder.

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As reported by Andrew McMains for ADWEEK.

NEW YORK Mercedes-Benz USA, six months after launching a new password-protected Web site for interacting with Generation Y consumers, is planning a second site next year to reach an older group of Mercedes owners.

In fact, vice president of marketing Steve Cannon has found the Gen Y site, www.generationbenz.com, so efficient and useful that he can envision it replacing some types of focus groups, particularly those that delve into broader issues, such as "green washing."

Mercedes uses Generation Benz to get feedback on product designs and advertising concepts and more generally gauge the mind-set of the 19- to 32-year-old crowd. Through questionnaires, polls and live chats, the company seeks to better understand what makes Gen Y tick.

"In marketing, you have to stay relevant. And certainly some brands are more challenged than others in staying relevant and vital to this new audience," Cannon said. "We do head-to-head comparisons, asking them questions about us versus our key competitors. We poll them on a regular basis. And we ask them about their media choices.

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Mercedes launched the password-protected Web site six months ago. Through questionnaires, polls and live chats, the company seeks to better understand what makes Gen Y tick. It uses the forum to get feedback on an array of topics from product designs to advertising concepts for the 19- to 32-year-old crowd.

“In marketing, you have to stay relevant. Certainly some brands are more challenged than others in staying relevant and vital to this new audience,” Cannon said. “[Generation Benz] is allowing us to gather data and get to know our customers in a deeper and richer way.”

The site, developed by Passenger in Los Angeles, currently has about 800 members, each of whom was invited by Mercedes. Nearly half have visited in the past 60 days, and of those, a few hundred are “very regular users,” Cannon said.

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"It's one of the projects that I'm most excited about because it's finally a technology that's allowing us to gather data and get to know our customers in a deeper and richer way," Cannon added.

The site currently has about 800 members, each of whom was invited by Mercedes. Nearly half of them have visited in the past 60 days, and of those, a few hundred are "very regular users," Cannon said. About a third of the members are Mercedes owners; the rest are generally interested in the brand and may become owners in the future.

Mercedes homed in on Gen Y initially because it's a "big and important" group that's comfortable with technology and represents great potential buying power, Cannon said. So, what has he learned thus far?

"They're optimistic like you wouldn't believe. They think they're going to take on the world and make changes. They're not going to settle," Cannon said. "These guys are very brand conscious. They are very comfortable with brands like Mercedes-Benz. Previous generations, like Gen X, they wanted to do things that were the opposite of their parents. . . . Here we have a generation that actually likes their parents and would definitely drive what their parents drove."

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As posted by Karl Greenberg of MediaPost.

Mercedes-Benz USA wants an invited group of Gen Y netizens to open up about the brand. So it is running a social networking marketing program called Generation-Benz, intended to bring younger consumers into the brand while giving Mercedes insights about the 20-somethings.

The site, at www.GenerationBenz.com, via L.A.-based firm Passenger, is an invitation-only forum by which the company will mine the Gen-Y attitudes, lifestyle and brand preferences. The company says that with the new program it hopes to get a new group of consumers into the brand and shape the brand for the future.

Said Stephen Cannon, Mercedes-Benz U.S.A.'s VP/Marketing, in a release: "When our customers join the brand, they tend to stay. Our Generation-Benz community is a natural extension of our desire to broaden the Mercedes-Benz family, and establish a dialogue with future buyers to guide us with the design of our vehicles and direction of our brand."

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As posted by Kathleen from Adotas

Mercedes-Benz has created an online customer community for Generation Y in a bid to tap into their paradigm “ and then turn around and market the hell out of them of course. The company has teamed up with Passenger to create the invite-only community, dubbed Generation Benz.

“Mercedes-Benz has always been highly attuned to the voice of its loyal customer base, which has helped propel our brand to where it is today,” said Stephen Cannon, vice president of marketing, Mercedes-Benz USA. “When our customers join the brand, they tend to stay. Our Generation Benz community is a natural extension of our desire to broaden the Mercedes-Benz family, and establish a dialogue with future buyers to guide us with the design of our vehicles and direction of our brand.” Mercedes-Benz will elicit feedback on its cars, brand positioning and socio-cultural trends and will preview upcoming ads and marketing campaigns, in what it said is a first in the luxury auto space.

Passenger works with companies such as ABC, Chrysler, Coca-Cola and Fox to build and manage private online communities to make more informed business decisions, innovate more rapidly, and design better products and services.

As posted by Fred Aun for ClickZ.

An invitation-only online community created for Mercedes Benz USA by customer collaboration player Passenger is seeing a healthy level of interest from prospective young owners even as the auto industry free-falls.

Justin Cooper, co-founder and head of innovation for the L.A.-based Passenger, said the invitation-only "Generation Benz" community currently has about 800 active members and that about two-thirds of them have yet to buy a Mercedes. The community was launched in May.

Once they gain access to the community, these interested non-owners get to talk about the vehicles with passionate owners as well as representatives from the company.

"This is the first time I've ever seen, since Passenger's been in business, a brand attract a majority of its members as non-owners," said Cooper. "I think that brands having these conversations during this recession are really at an advantage. While other automakers are challenged to stay afloat, Mercedes sees this as way to extend its brand."

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Mercedes-Benz, on the other hand, has taken a decidedly more grown-up approach to their target audience by inviting an exclusive group of Gen Y consumers to www.generationbenz.com, a password-protected website. MediaPost (reg. required) reports that the site is an attempt to mine the select Gen Y sample for insight towards their "attitudes, lifestyle and brand preferences" through questionnaires, polls and live chats. Ultimately, the company "hopes to get a new group of consumers into the brand and shape the brand for the future." Sure, it doesn't have the wow factor involved in a puppet production, but it's a pretty smart game plan. During these trying times when it comes to making a big financial decision like buying a new car, we want facts not farce. It's unclear what incentives the company has promised participants for their contributions. But if they're able to draw out honest opinions about what twentysomethings want from their next car and then apply them accordingly, they will have done well. Sounds like a win-win situation.

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"What this means," explains Justin Cooper, who cofounded the company with Andrew Leary, "is that you have an ongoing dialogue with the people who ultimately help you shape the brand, through our online community platform." This dialogue enables brands to harvest ideas from outside their corporate walls, while giving consumers a sense of ownership of the process.

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Passenger announced today that customers JCPenney and ABC Studios were honored as finalists in the prestigious Forrester Groundswell Awards program, which recognizes excellence in effective business uses of social technologies. Winners and finalists were selected from over 150 submissions spanning seven categories that represent the main goals Forrester Research recommends companies consider as reasons to use social technologies to interact with customers. Passenger’s Ambrielle community for JCPenney was honored in the Embracing category, and its “Lost” Emmy nomination community for ABC Studios was recognized in the Listening category.

“It’s an honor to be recognized for the role our communities are playing in advancing the business and organizational goals of our clients,” said Justin Cooper, co-founder and chief innovation + marketing officer, Passenger. “JCPenney and ABC Studios’ commitment to listening to and engaging with their customers on an ongoing basis to drive innovation and meaningful change is inspiring; this is why we do what we do.”

JCPenney “Embraces” Its Customers
JCPenney worked with Passenger to launch the Ambrielle Team, a private online community for the JCPenney lingerie line, with the goal of learning more about the Ambrielle customer and her fit and design preferences. Passenger’s team helped JCPenney gain an understanding of their fit and quality issues through a series of engaging online discussions within the private community, and then conducted a “wear” test to gain more detailed feedback on specific products. Participating members were invited to voice their opinions via discussion boards, online activities and live chats with the product design team. Based on this customer collaboration and feedback, JCPenney made several significant product changes to the lingerie bands, straps and overall sizing to better meet customers’ needs. The changes were reported back to the community to show how they embraced their insights and feedback; the Ambrielle products hit stores in July, with much stronger sales.

ABC Studios “Listens” to Viewer Feedback
ABC Studios and Passenger created the ABC Studios Advisory Panel community to give producers and executives an opportunity to directly connect with viewers, engaging them in ongoing dialogue and incorporating that voice into the development of their shows. In preparation for the upcoming Emmy submissions for the popular TV series “Lost,” ABC Studios sought reactions from those not familiar with the show to get an objective opinion on each episode's standalone appeal. Producers reached out to community members who were *not* “Lost” viewers to preview several episodes from season four and elicit feedback on which should be submitted for an Emmy nomination. The engaging discussions in the community and valuable insight from this collaboration directly influenced the producers' decision to submit the episode "The Constant" for Emmy consideration.

The Forrester Groundswell Awards program was developed to support and recognize the principles outlined in the Forrester book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies (Harvard Business Press, 2008). More information about the awards is available here.