SPRINTER
Designed for the Business Customer in Mind.
Just as Mercedes-Benz is a symbol for excellence in the passenger car segment, its vans are considered to be the standard for business customers. Mercedes-Benz entered the commercial vans segment in 2001 with the Sprinter, Metris and Freightliner brands. Mercedes-Benz captured 7% market share in a market dominated by Ford (50%), Chevy (24%), and Nissan (9%). Vans is one of the fastest growing divisions at Daimler by revenue, volume and profit.
We pitched and won the business in December 2015, and our digital program offered everything from site development to social media to custom upfit tools and fleet management systems.
Project: Website redesign for Mercedes-Benz vans, US and Canada
Role: VP, Senior Creative Group Director, Experience
Agency: Razorfish
Activities and Deliverables: I was active in the original pitch efforts which included the creation of a strategy and experience that best met the needs of the customers and our Mercedes-Benz clients. Since we won the business, I have maintained an oversight role ensuring that we held to our original experience principles and vision. Periodically I have been hands-on with future vision workshops, helping to identify untapped opportunities for growth of the business and enhanced experiences for our customers.
Pitch concept: helping business customers find the right Sprinter for their trade.
Our Challenge
How do we create a best-in-class Build Your Own experience that drives customers to dealers? Also, how can we create a tool that enables users to compare total cost of operation of Mercedes-Benz Vans to direct competitors’ vans to ultimately drive customers to dealers?
Our Objectives
Redesign the experience to reduce the number of steps and provide clear guidance through an overwhelming number of options, all while providing transparency to monthly pricing throughout the process. Also, the new site provided a comparison tool for users to see how cost-efficient MB Vans are throughout the life of the vehicle, despite the higher upfront cost.
Pitch concept including Build Your Own Upfitting options.
What We Delivered
In addition to marketing and educating, the MBVans.com site includes an array of tools we built for the business customer, including eCommerce capabilities. Our Build Your Own and Upfitter tools work seamlessly together to enable the business customer to select, configure, and equip a van to match their business needs. The experience was optimized for mobile, and included educational content, vocation-based filters, and a 360-degree view of upfit interiors. The site also included an industry-best Inventory search feature and a Total Cost of Ownership calculator to demonstrate the value of Mercedes-Benz Vans over time.
Our site also welcomed and assisted Fleet customers, with dedicated content, special offers, and, most recently, the ability for Fleet customers to configure and purchase multiple vans online. In addition, our marketing efforts on the homepage for the launch of the new Sprinter van saw massive engagement.
Final Design - Homepage
Final Design - Total Cost of Ownership
Final Design - Vans Upfitting
Insights
About 48% of all shoppers start a build
22% improvement in Build Your Own completion rate, with those visitors completing a build being more likely to become a lead and/or estimate a payment
6K TCO visits per month with 48% engagement rate on the page
Users that use TCO are 5x more likely to complete a lead form than the average user