Sprinter Applies For A Job
Issue 19 | June 2011
Agency
Lukas Lindemann Rosinski
Creative Team
Creative Team: Thomas Heyen, Markus Kremer, Jakob Kriwat, Damian Kuczmierczyk, Victor Aloji, Konstanze Kievenheim, Jascha Oevermann
Other Credits
Chief Creative Officers: Arno Lindemann, Bernhard Lukas
Date
March 2011
Background
In a competitive market, Mercedes-Benz wanted fleet managers of major companies to consider the Sprinter.
Idea
The Sprinter is one of the best workers any company could have. However, before you start work in a company, you usually have to apply for a job there. So the Sprinter applied for a position at over 120 major German businesses by writing its very own application letter.
The letter was carved out of the tyre on a Sprinter which then drove over the letter paper. Ink was provided by the muddy streets of Hamburg.
Each letter had its own link to a microsite where the recipient could see exactly how the Sprinter had written the letter.
Results
400 prospects have been identified. So far 120 letters have been mailed out. But because the campaign is still in its early days, accurate response rates are unavailable at the moment.
The Letter:
Dear Sir or Madam,
My name is Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, and I would like to apply for a position in your company.
I have extensive experience in the area of transport and logistics, with a 15-year track record of continuous personal development that makes me among the most reliable goods transporters around.
I am made by one of the best-known and most prestigious manufacturers in the industry, and have been engineered to deliver hundreds of thousands of kilometres of service.
My greatest strengths are my durability and my large capacity. I would welcome the opportunity to demonstrate my abilities to you in a test drive.
To find out more about me and what I can offer, and for proof that this application is all my own work, please visit www.sprinter-bewerbung.de.
Yours sincerely,
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter
Our Thoughts
This is a brilliant example of direct mail and digital media working together to be more effective than either could on its own.
The idea of the van writing its own letter is ingenious enough. But then the way it gets fleet managers to go online to watch a demo of the van at work writing it is the key to what I am sure will be a great business success.
In a thousand other instances, the brief for this would have led to a standard mailpack. A letter and a brochure.
In defying the usual, Mercedes-Benz tell us a lot about themselves as well as a lot about the Sprinter.
Incidentally, when you have a nifty idea, it goes social rapidly. On YouTube alone this mailing to just 120 people has now been viewed by 46,500 others.
See the van writing its letter at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=okgWWy7YTw4