How Bonzai’s TruSkin ad format helped deliver Mercedes-Benz’ highly interactive and engaging creative ad campaign

TruSkin, a highly interactive, flexible and immersive ad format from programmatic creative management platform Bonzai, allowed Foundation Media to deliver Mercedes-Benz’ latest engaging digital ad campaign, with exceptional, targeted results.

Challenge: The new luxury car that stands out from the competition

As one of the world’s most premium automotive brands, Mercedes-Benz only works with the best in the business to deliver on its campaign concepts.

In 2018, Mercedes-Benz turned to Foundation Media to create a digital advertising campaign to launch the All New Mercedes-AMG GLC 63 S, the sportiest midsize SUV with the three-pointed star.

The brief was to stand out from the crowd, re-invigorating Mercedes-Benz in the SUV category and generating test drive enquiry.

Foundation Media’s digital account manager, Louise Hutley said. We needed a large canvas format to showcase the major appeal of the AMG model, integrate points of engagement such as sound in the creative in order to deepen brand engagement, and get consumers excited.

Solution: A premium brand experience delivered programmatically

Foundation Media in collaboration with Resolution Media, turned to Bonzai’s TruSkin format to build Mercedes-Benz’ campaign as a self-serve execution. However it required Bonzai as a managed service to complete a more custom-build, including custom-coding certain features to create a unique, interactive and immersive experience of the vehicle.

The final campaign was exceptionally beautiful, including an ‘interactive on scroll’ where the vehicle’s headlights activate on and off as the user scrolls, plus an on/off ignition button to activate the signature AMG engine noise. The campaign also included autoplay (sound-off video) along with a sleek, non-intrusive skin.

The integration of the video and AMG engine sound inclusions answered our objective of deepening brand engagement through the use of interaction points, Louise said. At the same time, the high impact and memorable format allowed us to create something bespoke for the new Mercedes-AMG GLC Model that set it aside from other auto advertising.

Another deciding factor for Mercedes-Benz was that Bonzai delivered this creative solution programmatically, with strong integration across premium publisher whitelists in AU.

We are very stringent in our digital placements so we are always looking for innovative formats that can run across many of our top-tier sites, Louise explained. Integration with our (Foundation’s) trade desk OMGP, allowed us to buy Rich Media units programmatically at scale without losing visibility or control over where it’s shown.

Result: Creating and distributing engaging creative at scale

Since the campaign’s launch in mid-2018, Mercedes-Benz has enjoyed:

• 47% engagement rate
• 80.46% video completion rate
• A solid 1.16% CTR

But what Mercedes-Benz enjoyed the most was launching a unique, memorable creative that resonated with its target audience.

Bonzai provides the opportunity to develop creative campaigns that stand out from the crowd, removing the reliance on CTR and encouraging in-banner engagement and increased time with the brand, Louise said. Delivered programmatically, it enabled us to create and distribute engaging creative at scale – whilst maintaining a premium site list and audience relevant to the brand.