Design vs Art Blog

I was surprise when I read that the Head of Digital Communication of Mercedes-Benz (actually, Daimler Chrysler AG) was going to be part of the panel of the Building Communities discussion. What does Mercedes has to do with online communities? Well, in fact, a lot. Sven Doerrenbaecher showed the public how Daimler is using online communities to power the Mercedes-Benz brand.

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Very impressive is what they achieved with its Mixed Tape, an online community for music download that has 2.8 million users. Thanks to Mixed Tape, Mercedes, an “old economy” company, has 18% of the German music download market. Music was free, artist were applying to get into the compilations and people were discussing about it. Every compilation cover was showing a different car and the whole design was following the Mercedes brand.

Unfortunately, Mixed Tape is closed now, but Mercedes says they are preparing a new one, to be release in early 2008. The good thing is that they left the forums opened, and they ask the users for recommendations for the new versions. Well done!

Another interesting thing is the Mercedes-Benz.tv, and IPTV service performing different programmes. The over-all design of the Mercedes TV site is very good and attractive.

This was an excellent example of old-into-new-economy. Bravo Mercedes!

Popularity: 17% [?]

I am back in Munich from the Online Marketing Dusseldorf 2007 convention. It was my first time there and my impression was mainly positive, although I think the organization could have been better (not many sits, poor food offer, bad sound at conferences). The conferences were mainly German-oriented, what it makes this event more or less interesting depending on your ziel market.

The first morning I have attended the Trends in Mobile Marketing talk, Case Studies presentation and the Outlook for Mobile Web 2.0. The Pixelpark AG presented the ZDFmediathek, a quasi-BBC TV player, the G+J Electronic Media Sales GmbH presented the Vodafone Live portal and the YOC AG showed its Volvo project.

From the above mentioned, the one I liked the most was the Vodafone presentation. G+J gave some general hints about Vodafone Live, a mobile portal with TV shows, music downloads and a selection of websites for news, sport, travel and shopping. They also showed us how Vodafone is making money with mobile web advertisements, proving that it is actually possible to make money with it. Click Here to check the Vodafone Live portal.

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They were also showing how some brands are getting a better connection to the their customers thanks to mobile microsites. For example the Volvo microsite developed by the YOC AG, with videos, wallpapers and screensavers.

Popularity: 9% [?]