Mercedes-Benz has decided to turn to social media again, this time to attract new millennial buyers to the new 2015 Mercedes GLA-Class. They have created a new vehicle in the luxury compact SUV segment with the GLA-Class, which is scheduled to hit lots this fall.

Mercedes is using Instagram, Twitter and Facebook in its #GLApacked campaign to attract a new, younger buyer to the brand. A similar campaign was launched last year with the CLA-Class, which was considered a success. Mercedes is expecting to see similar results with the GLA.

The luxury car company has solicited help from artists and athletes who will be loaned a GLA for a cross-country excursion. The participants are instructed to document their travels on Instagram starting June 9. First, however, they were asked to (artfully) arrange cargo on a GLA floormat, showing what they would pack into the all-new GLA for a dream road trip.

This isn’t the first time Mercedes has used Instagram like this. Last July through September, Mercedes Benz turned to Instagram to help launch a new lower-cost car model, the CLA. The “Take the Wheel” campaign from last year was nearly identical to #GLApacked: Mercedes loaned CLAs to popular Instagram users and had them post pictures of their journeys. Tapping into these influencers’ following was instrumental, as many of them had half a million or more Instagram followers.

“Take the Wheel” achieved its goal of reaching this demographic. The earlier campaign generated 87 million Instagram impressions and 2 million likes across the pages of the influencers involved and the @mbusa page.

Most importantly for Mercedes, however, is that young people bought CLAs. According to Mercedes’ digital marketing manager Mark Aikman CLA owners are “one of the youngest age groups in the history of the brand.” A majority of CLA buyers are Gen-X or Gen-Y, and for 75 percent of them, it was their first Mercedes.

This time Mercedes has a marketing option that it didn’t have with its CLA campaign – paid Instagram ads, an effort that wasn’t part of the new campaign at first. However, Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, enjoyed the CLA promotion so much last year that it approached Mercedes about joining the select group of brands advertising on Instagram. Aikman said Mercedes was eager to take them up on the offer.

The ads are targeted at males and females of a “millennial” age, Aikman said, and will run throughout July.“We’re definitely seeing some millennials buying, just a little later in life,” Aikman said.

Aikman said Millennials differ significantly from older car buyers in how they go about buying a car. Specifically, much of their consideration occurs online instead of on the lot.

“They’re walking into dealerships ready to buy more so than to kick the tires and determine which model might be right for them,” Aikman said.

Instagram is certainly an ideal platform for reaching millennials. More than half (51 percent) of 18- to 34-year-olds are on it, higher than Facebook (36.4 percent), Pinterest (41.3 percent), Tumblr (49.7 percent) and Twitter (40.7 percent), according to comScore. In addition, 58 percent of the Interbrand Top 100 have active accounts on Instagram.

Aikman stated, “We’ve realized that visual storytelling through Instagram and Facebook is a really powerful tool for the younger consumer.”

Source: Digiday