Integrated Marketing

This is a link to the start of the longest endurance race in NA, described as severe endurance racing. We finished 10th in class driving car # 09, Wheels America 2.

What has this got to do with Integrated Marketing a gentle reader may ask.

Nothing would be the truthful answer. But I have always like the metaphor of racing for integrated activities in that it is not the driver that wins but the team. The Integrated team that does each of it's jobs well and when integrated by a great manager has the best chance of winning.

Here is the report on the NASA race written by official VSCCA scribe Jim Donick, one of our co-drivers.

25 Hours of Thunderhill:
A not quite Vintage Adventure
By jpd

Editor’s note: There is a concept in our family called the “yup bag.” Part of life’s adventure is to fill it up. One fills it with experiences so if anyone ever asks if you’ve driven a Ferrari, for intance, or flown an Aeronca, or fished the Battenkill, you can respond with a quiet smile, “yup”.
Like many sporting motorists I’ve dreamed of taking part in a 24 hour endurance race. Mike Donick, Jeff Schur, and yrs trly took the opportunity this year to do that in the 25 Hours of Thunderhill out in California. Why 25 hours you might ask? Well, one could argue that 24 hours is ok for the French, maybe, or that there are enough 24 hour races that nearly anyone might try one of them. One could also simply suspect lunacy on the part of the organizers. You, gentle reader, may form your own opinion.

Thursday 29 November, ‘07:
Arrived at the track from San Francisco around 2:00pm.
It’s a test day for some cars. We should have done that.
Our truck not there
Recon laps are offered for street cars at 5:00 for an hour - Much Help. Thunderhill’s a three mile circuit with fifteen corners. Several of them are blind and off-camber. The recon laps were after dark but at least we have an idea which way the course goes..
Still no truck
Called - finally - truck broken along side of road ten or more hours away.
COLD evening

Friday 30 November, ‘07:
Truck waiting in line ahead of us when we arrived at 06:45. They had been alongside the road somewhere between here and Texas for 12 hours with a broken fuel pump. Very nice guys but looking a little tired.
Walking to the car, Jeff and I wonder if this is really about the stupidest thing we’ve ever done or maybe a grand adventure. Time will tell.
Our team is Wheels America from Dallas, Texas. There are two cars. We are in the 09 car and are sponsored by TireShoppe.com. Our teammates are in 05. I’ve bought some last minute team baseball caps for our four drivers. Bought ‘em in San Francisco on Wednesday (limited selection available) and they say “Property of Alcatraz.” Hence, we in the 09 car are now unofficially “Team Alcatraz.”
Looks like 71 or so cars here for the race.
Class E2 contains our Spec-Miata, the ITA Mazdas, the RX7s and a few others. This is the slowest class. Fastest will be the Daytona Protypes. There are a fair number in the middle as well.
Morning session is COLD and very very windy. Cold continues through the day - wind dies down.
Early practice unpleasant due to mixed traffic. Also difference between driving an Allard for 26 years and driving a “momentum” car that works rather differently.
It’s quite a ways from vintage racing, where we are happy to let the faster guys have the line, to the cut and thrust of endurance racing. There will be much to learn.
As time progressed I got a little quicker but Mike and Jeff were well ahead of me. Finished the day with a short stint at night. It will prove interesting.
Still awaiting the arrival of our fourth driver.
Got closer to the groove.
New Driver for “Team Alcatraz” - Bobby Carter - arrives, a HOT shoe and very experienced at Thunderhill.. He came in and qualified the car - cold and in the dark - 3rd in E2 with a 2’09” The 05 car, with team owner Bob Stretch at the wheel, is first in E2.
Drivers all pleasant.
Car had a few prep issues. Bad wire to the Cam Sensor cost us some time.
Jeff more uncomfortable at night than I am, I think. Him faster overall by a fair bit, though.
Bobby gave us a chalk talk in the trailer after practice. It should help.
Tomorrow, per schedule, I don’t get into the car ‘til after 3:00 PM. Bobby starts and runs a single stint. Then Mike, then Jeff then me to do the twilight shift. Then we each do a single up to nearly midnight then Bobby does a Double. Then Mike and Jeff do singles and I come in to do the dawn patrol. We shall see how this plan holds up.

Saturday 1 December, ‘07:
Saturday Morning comes early.
We’ve got to get to track but I’ll not get into the car ‘til nearly dusk. Need to be there for the start, though.

11:00 Green Flag after Opening Ceremonies with Honour Guard from the Air Force
Bobby in our car at the start.
Full Course Yellow around noon
05 Car is leading the class; we are second.

13:05 Michael in car. We leading from 05 but only for about a lap while he pits.

13:10-ish Full Course RED

15:00-ish Michael into pits after a two hour stint. Schedule going out the window as stints are longer than anticipated - good gas mileage and yellow flags. Mike did a very good drive: turning mid-teens.
We sitting 3rd in class.
Traffic seems to already be getting lighter.
Temperature getting colder.

15:00-ish Jeff in car and going well.

15:20 Full course yellow for 15 min. (looks like there will be a lot of these and not worth logging all of ‘em)

16:50 Jeff comes in for my drive.
Beautiful partial moon rising in the east.
Our lights are on.
Looks like I’ll not get a stint in daylight today.
Everybody’s headlights and driving lights already on. Damn, but they’re bright.
Traffic fast. Closing speeds difficult to judge with simply bright lights in mirror. They look a lot closer than they actually are.
Car developing a bit of a miss similar to the one in practice. Comes in around 6500 rpm but is very intermittent.
Whacked by a passing car as I’m moving over for the apex on turn 9. Thankfully not much damage. Looks like it only knocked off a piece of bondo. Not pleasant, though.
It’s painfully slow driving while watching the mirror.
Chris Puskar in the 05 car had the drive train let go (differential) and stopped on the circuit - left hand of track - coming into Turn 9. This brought out a full course yellow and the pace car. While pace car was gathering up the cars behind me, I came around and pushed Chris back to the paddock. (Should anyone ask, we were “bump drafting.”) It was really kind of wild, the pace car was coming up about three cars behind with everyone in line behind him. There is no passing under yellow so, when I pulled over to push Chris, they all stopped and waited then followed us around. It was a hell of a neat parade! May not have been fast this stint but “ACE Towing” eased things for the entire team. We’ll talk about that one for awhile. I should have gotten his AAA card.
Finish the stint (1 hour and 45 minutes) after another yellow.

18:40 Handed over to Bobby. He promptly went out and the car died on his first lap.
Spent an hour behind the wall diagnosing the problem which was the same cam angle sensor plug wire as yesterday! An hour behind the wall is costly.
Once car is fixed Bobby puts in a set of blistering laps. He’s local and quite the Miata expert. His father is a racer and is with us as crew. His grandfather was Dick Carter, who raced Shelby Mustangs on the left coast when they were new. Both father and son are pleasant, helpful, and very hospitable - a great addition to the team.

21:32 Mike in car.
First time ever racing at night. He’s as fast as in daylight and is having a ball.
No significant issues.

23:14 Jeff takes car.
We have now been running for 12 hours. Only (?) 13 to go.
Jeff does a great job with the car but is dealing with a serious miss most of the time.
Closing traffic unpleasant for him - closing at unpredictable speeds and our engine off song - but he keeps us going and in the hunt. This ignition thing is intermittent but getting worse.
Jeff, the trooper, keeps on motoring.


SUNDAY 2 December, ‘07:
01:35 Jeff comes in and I take over.
The miss is getting very serious
Car becoming more than unpleasant to drive but hazardous.
Bring it behind the wall for a diagnosis.
It is the wiring to the damned cam angle sensor again.
They do some fixing and send me back out.
After another 20 laps or so it is getting very ugly again so back behind the wall and they take another shot at fixing it. This time it works but it’s, at best, jury rigged.
Once back out I’m having a ball - a moderately slow one, I regret to say - but a ball never-the-less and not off the pace.

03:25 Top up the petrol and send out Bobby.
Michael arrives back in pit from his rest at the hotel
Bobby sets fastest lap of the race for class E2 on this stint.

04:00 Bobby in for a deflating rear tyre (left) and a loose rear axle locating bolt.

04:15 Starting to rain! That wasn’t in the forecast. Where did THAT come from?

04:48 Bobby hands over to Mike.
He comes into the paddock pushing the 05 car that has run out of gas this time as we had a long full course yellow right about then.
Mike has a great stint and runs a bit faster than the 05 car for part of it.
Rainy and wet for most of the stint.
The kid can drive.
Dry line emerging again near the end of the stint.

06:55 Mike hands over to Bobby who sets another fastest lap for the class. (This one holds to the end of the race) Mike’s stints now over

07:30 Sun is up and we are still running!

07:52 Bobby comes in and hands over to Jeff.
Bobby’s race is over.
Now Jeff and I need to bring the car home in one piece.
Jeff turns in competitive lap times and makes no mistakes.
He’s happy when he brings it in.

09:00 Amazing number of street cars in the paddock up on jack stands with pieces missing off of them. It’s been a long night.

09:24 Jeff comes in and hands over to me.
Jeff’s stints are done.
We’ve now got 2.5 hours or so to go.
Car running well.
Do my best with it for first hour and forty five minutes and am enjoying the track.
Rain for part of the time.

11:00-ish In for a “splash and dash” then back out.
If this was LeMans we’d be done!
Ratchet it down a bit more to ensure we finish.
Giving faster traffic the old “Lime Rock point by” and most respond well.
One guy in the #6 Miata helps me down the straight a couple of times with a bump draft. It was fun - not something one does often in an Allard - and enhanced the camaraderie.

11:30 Half an hour to go. Don’t do anything dumb.

11:40-ish Full course yellow for maybe ten minutes. Somebody must feel foolish.

11:58 The leader is coming up behind me.
He sits on my tail at reduced speed from turn 8 around to the front straight. I try to point him by but he’s having none of it.
Will it be noon when we come around? My calculations suggest not but as we come onto the straight I see the checker furled in the starter’s hand.
I pull a tad left and brush the brakes to make sure the leader’s nose comes by ahead of me. Not planning to go around again.
We take the checker together.

NOON: “Ever finish a 25 hour motor race?”
“Yup.”

The link will take you to the video of a man destroying many years of building a brand image. He may never recover

Why is this relevant?

Because the emerging media can do similar things to a brand that abuses the new rules of transparency.

Wal-Mart for instance tried to fool people by setting up their own social network, The Hub. It did not take long for them to be pilloried.

MySpace and other social networks all have the same potential to damage brands that try and manipulate them in any way.

Bloggers are now taking money to support brands and the great unwashed public, now the savvy digerati know this.

So to all marketers who try to be hip, the marketplace will react. As David Ogilvy once said, "look before you leap".

One of my readers, Michael Antman, kindly sent me this article which I thought I would share with you.

It sadly makes perfect sense showing that the real progress toward Integrated marketing being widely and professionally practiced is still in it's formative years, despite Stanley Tannenbaum's book on the subject written a dozen years ago.

(Click the headline to visit McSweeney & Antman's website)



UNDERSTOOD, EXPECTED AND ASSUMED: THE FUTURE OF INTEGRATED MARKETING
COMMUNICATIONS.

"Which one of these terms doesn't belong?

Automatic elevator.
Electric lamp.
Electric toaster.
Long-playing record.
Integrated marketing communications.

The odd term out is, of course, “integrated marketing communications.”
That's because all of the other terms are examples of “pleonasms,” in which
extraneous words are used to explain a simple concept. After all, we just
assume that all elevators these days are automatic, and don't require
white-gloved operators to punch in your floor selection.

These terms weren't always pleonastic, however. Back when each of these
innovations were first introduced, there were older and less-efficient
technologies already in place, such as gas lamps or vinyl 78s that could
hold only a handful of Al Jolson's greatest hits. And in the days before
advanced toasting technology brought mankind the miracle of the BLT, bread
was held on long forks over roaring fires, so when mankind made the epochal
leap to the “electric toaster,” both words were needed at first to
distinguish the new-fangled plug-in kind from the sort that scorched your
knuckles. These days, though, the modifier's just trimmed away.

The reason that “integrated marketing communications” (IMC) isn't yet a
pleonasm is that it just isn't possible to assume that any given marketing
communications program is, in fact, integrated. True, virtually everyone
these days calls themselves “integrated,” but it's likely that 90 percent or
more of all marketing departments and agencies out there still practice
segregated marketing, or, at best, some form of integrated marketing
communications that just isn't fully baked.

The problem is that IMC is still very much of a new concept that's barely
out of its beta phase. From the perspective of clients, that's bad news: It
means they're still paying for the equivalent of gas lamps and open fires
instead of the powerful, mutually reinforcing, synergistic marketing
communications programs they should be getting.

Though there are many definitions of IMC, and its history doesn't
necessarily follow a clear path, in general IMC was originally understood to
mean the coordination of all marketing materials, including advertising,
print collateral, packaging, in-store displays and the like, so that a
consumer encountering a POP display would immediately recognize it as coming
from the same advertiser who did that wacky ad he just saw.

Believe it or not, after all this time, there are still B-to-C advertisers
who don't even do that much.

Later on, the concept, if not the practice, of integrated marketing became
more sophisticated, recognizing that well-coordinated marketing materials,
while generally an excellent idea, were only the end result of a consistent
methodology in which the marketing team, the in-house advertising and public
relation staffs and all marketing communications agencies work together
toward a common goal.

An obvious, unexceptionable idea, but one that rarely works in reality.
There are just too many different departments, each with an abundance of
jealously guarded agendas and a paucity of knowledge about what the other
departments do, to make it work. Worse, there's very little inclination on
the part of senior management to knock heads together and make it work.

At some point, the big advertising agencies began buying up smaller public
relations, events-planning, marketing consulting, investor relations and
direct-mail firms, in order to be able to describe themselves to potential
clients as comprehensive integrated marketing communications resources, and,
more specifically, to avoid leaving any tasty crumbs on the table when a new
piece of business was passed around.

The problem with this model is that just because a direct-mail firm is owned
by an advertising agency, it doesn't mean that the direct-mail folks and the
advertising folks will be any more sympathetic to, or understanding of, each
other's goals and ways of working than would otherwise be the case. In fact,
the potential for turf fights between two agencies with common ownership may
be greater than it is for two unconnected agencies.

Worse, by pretending to be all things for all clients, this version of IMC
risks seriously misleading clients by creating marketing communications
programs based on false premises. If a client that doesn't really understand
the difference between marketing and marketing communications comes to its
advertising agency for a comprehensive marketing plan, the agency probably
won't say no, even if marketing isn't among the “all things” that it offers.
Instead, the agency will do a half-baked marketing analysis and the client,
perhaps not knowing any better, will accept it as validation for whatever
campaign the agency itself comes up with. It's likely that any number of
multi-million dollar advertising campaigns have been founded on such thin
gruel.

The good news is that there's another, better incarnation of integrated
marketing communications – the kind that really works – but achieving it
requires that two enormously important missing pieces be put into place.

The first is an integrated marketing communications sensibility that
pervades every level of an organization, especially senior management, so
that heads that haven't been knocked heretofore soon will be, and those
individuals who are more focused on keeping their heads down, playing
politics or winning awards than on working with their peers to create
effective communications will soon be toast.

Indeed, the most critical challenge in creating a truly integrated marketing
communications culture is nurturing truly integrated marketing
communications practitioners. These individuals might not be experts in
every form of marcom, but they must be able to develop enough understanding
of each form so that, as the lion lies down with the lamb, the advertising
creative and the P.R. professional can work together in a coordinated
fashion to advance their company's cause.

Which is, after all, what it's all about.

And that brings up the second missing piece: Sales. It is perhaps stating
the obvious to stress that the only true purpose of marketing, advertising,
collateral and all of those other functions that are supposed to be
integrated is to help a company sell more products and services. Of course,
bringing the sales team into the mix is particularly important in the B-to-B
environment, where sales people are in direct contact with the customer.

And yet how many advertising creatives ever talk to the persons who are
actually responsible for selling their company's or client's products? How
many companies habitually invite sales professionals into marketing
meetings, or marketing executives into sales meetings? How often do
companies or agencies go to sales departments to ask them what kind of
collateral they need, and then go back to them to get their approval of
concepts or copy?

Conversely, how many front-line sales people communicate the real-world
customer intelligence they glean directly to the people who are responsible
for forming their company's marketing and new product strategies?

The answer to these questions is also the answer to why, regrettably, the
term “marketing communications” must still be modified by the word
“integrated.” The truth is, there are too many cultural, psychological,
bureaucratic and physical barriers keeping these professionals from sharing
their invaluable insights. And until this changes, companies will continue
to experience inefficiencies, miss opportunities, and spend more than they
should on marcom programs.

It may take an outside force – an agency that understands and has practiced
true marcom and sales integration – to help senior management get the
marketing, marketing communications and sales teams working closely together
for the greater cause. But one way or another, those companies that manage
to get all the parts clicking nicely will over time outperform those
retrograde competitors that remain hunkered down in their separate fiefdoms.

A truly integrated marketing communications capability is, or should be, the
greatest thing since toasted sliced bread. But of course, we don't call it
“sliced bread” anymore. It's just “bread.”

So, too, should we be striving to call our discipline merely “marketing
communications,” because, if we advance the state of the art in IMC to where
it ought to be, the “integrated” will be understood."


Michael Antman
Principal, McSweeney & Antman

David Maister wrote this article about managing a lawfirm, but it is equally applicable to a service industry like an advertising agency. Here is the summary of what he says.

The full article is worth a read on David's website, (click the headline for a hotlink). Like much of David's advice, it is worth following but it is only followed by precious few because it forces hard choices.

"Professional businesses today are structurally complex organizations with many senior people overburdened by time-consuming and often conflicting roles.

Professional businesses often have some combination of

* Business unit
* Geographic markets or offices
* Division or department
* Product line/service offering
* Industry group
* Key account team
* Committees (recruitment, training)
* Task force or project team (service innovation, new offerings)

Each of these organizational groupings can, and does, intersect with duplicated missions, overlapping membership, and common resource pools to draw upon.

We frequently hear comments like this from members of management:

It is not at all clear what each of these groupings should be responsible for and how their activities should be coordinated and evaluated. If you are a key player in this organization, you can spend an inordinate amount of time in meetings. There has got to be a better way to organize for effective operations!

There is a better way, but the way professional businesses organize and manage has not kept up with their increasing complexity. Eventually — we think sooner rather than later — this will significantly impede their continuing success."

Unlucky for big Julie maybe, but the Ides of March were good to Mercedes.

Sales were up 18% for the month, +17% for the year. Hopefully the nay sayers who have said nothing about how wrong they were thus far, are reading these results against their dire predictions about the demise of Mercedes-Benz.

They are surely realizing now that Integrated Marketing Campaigns work over time and while they maybe less sensational than the Apple 1984 Superbowl ad, they ensure every customer touchpoint is reached appropriately.

March did not include the G Class and sales of the new M were up 63% versus year ago, which augurs well for the light truck category.

But the stellar performance of the new S Class, up 119%, is consistent with the auto pundits praise of the redesigned model.

As reported on this blog, (Mercedes In Decline, we think not, 09/28/05), the S Class is the first effort for Scott Keogh in his return as general manager marketing. One of the touchpoints was a regular series of small space newspaper ads, never very popular with creatives in general, but a key component of this S Class creative campaign that supported Television with a DNA only Mercedes S Class could run.

Behind the scenes was the launch website that gave existing owners and hand-raisers early information as well as timely direct response.

Properly Integrated Marketing is the best stealth weapon as the most recent Mercedes sales prove. Each touchpoint builds exponentially on the previous one and the accumulation is more effective than a few more noticeable impressions. It is also more cost efficient.
But to some, it is less sexy. We don't plan to change this view, especially if they are competitors.



Dieter Zetsche Speaks At DaimlerChrysler's Annual Meeting

−

Dieter Zetsche, CEO of DaimlerChrysler, took the stage at the company's annual meeting yesterday. As has been his motto in recent months, Zetsche preached a message of increasing operating profit by making the company more efficient and more flexible. To do so, the company will aim to make their administrative functions leaner and strive to eliminate redundancies between the Group and divisional levels. By accomplishing these tasks, reporting and decision-making will be performed faster, which Zetsche believes will "enable our operating units to focus on their core business of developing, building and selling fascinating vehicles."

−

http://www.emercedesbenz.com/Apr06/12DieterZetscheSpeaksAtDaimlerChryslersAnnualMeeting.html

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 07:45:00 CST

# posted by desjef @ 10:56 AM 0 comments

In a previous post, (Mercedes in decline, we think not), we predicted the following.

1. Mercedes was not in decline. Sales would exceed last year and post the 12th consecutive record sales year in the USA.

2. General Manager Marketing Communications and Mercedes veteran, Scott Keogh and Omnicom agency Merkley + Partners, are well on the way through a major initiative to restore the creative to it's former distinctiveness before the personnel changes that disrupted it. (From it's historical success).

The all time high sales of 224, 000 are a matter of public record.

The AdAge article by Jean Halliday below is the first public ackowledgement that the second prediction was also accurate.

The recently introduced S Class integrated Marketing campaign used a clever blend of "traditional; media", you know the dead one, TV, that all the new media use to promote their media, interactive and direct programs.

In a classic roadblock media buy, the agency took advantage of the President's speech to launch the new S Class to the widest audience possible.

This followed months of careful nurturing of interest generated by publicity, using the web to sustain it and ultimately turn it into action once the cars became available.

The other integrated program details for this finely tuned campaign which was brilliantly executed by the Omnicom Integrated Marketing Partnership are accurately described in Jean's article below.
(Reprinted for those without access to Adage online)


MERCEDES LAUNCHES AD BLITZ TO RECOUP LOST GROUND
Despite Record U.S. Sales, Automaker Still Trails Luxury Rivals
January 31, 2006
QwikFIND ID: AAR36I
By Jean Halliday
DETROIT (AdAge.com) -- Mercedes-Benz, the fourth-ranked luxury auto brand, is looking to stake its claim for being obsessive about technology, safety and engineering in its marketing for the new 2007 S-Class in an effort to distinguish its brand from rivals Lexus and BMW.
The S-Class ad blitz combines brand and product advertising with a "left-brand-right-brain" approach in direct mail, TV spots and print ads that blend the car’s emotional heritage with a more rational presentation of its technology.

Intellect and emotion

“The exact place Mercedes-Benz needs to be is a balance of intellect and emotion,” said Scott Keogh, general manager-marketing communications, Mercedes-Benz, noting that the brand retains high scores from consumers for engineering and safety.
Even though Mercedes-Benz reported record U.S. sales last year of 224,269 units, it still trailed Toyota Motor Sales USA’s Lexus, BMW North America's BMW and General Motor Corp.'s Cadillac.

“What makes us different from Lexus and others is we have the heritage and authenticity,” Mr. Keogh said. Mercedes-Benz USA CEO Paul Hatala, who has been overseeing marketing at the brand since Mercedes USA Vice President of Marketing Michelle Cervantez left to head marketing at Hyundai Motor America five months ago, said, “It’s time to revisit some of that ground we’ve owned and had.”.

The ad blitz for the 2007 S-Class includes three TV spots from Omnicom Group’s Merkley & Partners, New York, that break this week on national cable and spot broadcast networks. The local TV buys include the upcoming Winter Olympics on NBC and Academy Awards broadcast on ABC, with a national buy during the NCAA basketball tournament in March on CBS.

In the TV brand spot, a robotic voice details the behind-the-scene processes Mercedes-Benz goes through for every model it builds: “Weld them. Dip them. Test them. Build them. Wreck them ...” the narrator pronounces.

Small newspaper campaigns

Mercedes-Benz is starting what it calls a “fractional campaign” in newspapers about the technical aspects of S-Class and the brand. Each small ad will focus on a single feature that aims to show it off “like a piece of jewelry." In one ad, a single car seat is shown with the headline “The world’s most beautiful seat.” Another ad shows an air bag carrying the headline “An airbag for Mensa.” There will be a many as 60 print executions this year.
Mercedes said it is moving from lifestyle Web sites to third-party auto shopping sites to better reach in-market buyers. Carol Goll, general manager-brand experience marketing at the automaker, said Mercedes-Benz generates roughly 40,000 buyer leads monthly from online sources -- half from its own mbusa.com and half from independent car-buying site such as Edmunds.com and kbb.com. That’s why the sedan’s online buy starts in February on those two sites and those of auto-buff books through March. Critical Mas, Calgary, handles the online effort.
The automaker launched a micro site for S-Class in December and has since gotten 110,000 unique visitors, Ms. Goll said. Seven hundred of those visitors opted in for more information about the car; 350 asked to be contacted by a dealer.
The brand will get exposure in other ways too. The $85,400 car will be driven by Meryl Streep in this summer’s “The Devil Wears Prada” for which Mercedes-Benz will do special screenings but no other advertising.

Velvet box direct-mailer

And in the past week, Mercedes-Benz sent out a high-end direct-mailer in a velvet box to 300,000 S-Class prospects themed “A great leader always makes a lasting impression." It was preceded by a “holiday card” mailer about the redone model to 100,000 current and former owners of the car. Omnicom’s Rapp Collins, New York, handles that work.

The high-end model is a low-volume seller. Mercedes said it sold 16,036 S-Class sedans last year in the U.S. vs. 20,460 units in 2004. Sales often dip during the last year of an outgoing version.
In the first 10 months of 2005, S-Class received only $67,000 in measured media backing compared to $2.8 million in the same 2004 period, according to TNS Media Intelligence. Meanwhile in the same time frame, total Mercedes-Benz spending dropped 20% to $109 million, TNS figures show.

Mr. Keogh said spending behind the S-Class launch is “substantial,” but he declined to reveal specifics.