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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