The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2011–2012
Mercedes-Benz 'Escape the Map': an interactive Street View heist to win young drivers
Mercedes drops viewers inside a live-action Google Street View nightmare, where a C63 AMG guide helps them escape — and maybe win the car.
Mercedes-Benz
What it had to solve
For decades Mercedes-Benz was the prize at the twilight of a career — a 'status car' for mature drivers — even though its newer models were contemporary and exciting to drive. To reach younger buyers the brand needed a very different kind of automotive marketing: an experience that proved the car's dynamism rather than claiming it.
How it works
By 2011 Mercedes-Benz had a perception problem its engineers no longer deserved: the brand was the car you bought at the end of your career, not during its exciting middle. Its new range was contemporary and thrilling to drive, but the 'status car for mature drivers' image kept younger buyers away, and ordinary automotive advertising was not moving the needle.
AMV BBDO London answered with an interactive film built by Digital Domain and directed by Carl Rinsch, shot in Hong Kong and Los Angeles. 'Escape the Map' dropped viewers into a photoreal, live-action world modelled on Google Street View — a dystopian map where a guide in a Mercedes C63 AMG helped them navigate challenges. Every choice could lead to escape, to uncertainty, or to winning a Mercedes, and the campaign ran across online, TV, mobile, outdoor and showroom point-of-purchase, including an augmented-reality experience in dealerships.
The creative put the product at the centre of the audience's own story: the Mercedes was the ally that gets you out of the map. The brand's Eurobest effectiveness paper reported record levels of interaction with Mercedes-Benz, strong engagement with younger consumers, and an ROI of 2:1, which the agency called the fastest payback for an automotive campaign in a major effectiveness awards competition anywhere in the world at the time.
Why it lands
- Making the audience the driver of an escape film turned a perception problem into a first-person experience.
- The live-action Street View world borrowed a familiar interface, so the surreal premise was instantly readable.
- The C63 AMG was the solution inside the story, letting the car's dynamism be demonstrated rather than asserted.
- Integrating TV, web, mobile, outdoor and AR showrooms meant the idea travelled with the buyer from screen to dealership.
What it did
According to AMV BBDO's Eurobest effectiveness paper, the campaign achieved record levels of interaction with the Mercedes-Benz brand and unprecedented engagement with a younger audience, returning an ROI of 2:1 — which the agency called the fastest payback for an automotive campaign in a major effectiveness awards competition anywhere in the world at the time.
What you can take
To change who a brand belongs to, don't make a prettier ad for the old audience — put the target audience inside an experience where the product is the hero and the old perception is the villain.
Since then
The campaign launched in November 2011 in the UK and ran across the integrated media mix through 2012, with the augmented-reality dealership element created by blippar. Mercedes-Benz continued the interactive-film approach with later installments, and 'Escape the Map' was recognised at the Eurobest 2015 Creative Effectiveness awards, where AMV BBDO documented the 2:1 ROI and called it the fastest payback for an automotive campaign in a major effectiveness competition at that time.
Sources
- ESCAPE THE MAP — Eurobest 2015 Creative Effectiveness entry
- Mercedes-Benz "Escape the Map" — Advertising work page
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