Mercedes-Benz USA: Fashion Influencer Series

This Instagram series is indicative of many we executed at Razorfish for Mercedes-Benz USA, to broaden reach and engagement while promoting new vehicles in tandem with the company’s larger sales push.

Strategists/community managers on our team kept a running list of potential photographers/influencers, of which Boston-based Courtney Ryan (@courtperkins) was one. When they reached out to her to discuss this project, Courtney also offered access to her friend and fashion influencer Tania Sarin (@taniasarin). We saw this as an excellent opportunity to create content that would help Mercedes-Benz USA broaden its appeal beyond its typical audience, which skewed heavily male.

After the client signed off on our pitch, I helped brief Courtney and Tania on what the client and we were looking for creatively, while others on the team helped clarify deliverables, timetables and logistics. One of our goals was to play up a human element in the work, rather than rely purely on images of cars, which was the client’s tendency.

It was a delicate balance, keeping the car front and center while also weaving in other interesting elements that would appeal to diverse groups—fashion, travel, photography. With all those elements in mind, I wrote the copy for this series, making an effort to apply journalistic techniques, such as including direct quotes and vivid details that illustrated key points, rather than just regurgitating specs and factoids. I worked at length with one of our senior designers on final photo selection, paying particular attention to the order and variety of images.

While we initially recommended shorter captions (and succeeded with at least one of the posts), the client preferred to be more explanatory. Nevertheless, the project was a success, not only in terms of the numbers it achieved (some of which are visible in the above screenshots), but also in opening the eyes of the client to creative content beyond the typical car-focused fare.