our workMercedes-Benz / Showing how a little positive energy can move the world…
The e-transport revolution is coming… As the government plans to accelerate a “greener transport future” through a two-step phase-out of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2035, vehicle manufacturers are stepping up to meet strict targets around the proportion of total sales that should be made up of electric vehicles.
But electric vehicles aren’t quite ready for every journey yet…
It’s irresponsible and potentially reputationally damaging to simply flog them against targets – especially when it comes to load-bearing, long-distance commercial vehicles. There’s a big education piece to be done around everything from range to charging infrastructure, to make sure the right vans get in the right hands – especially when it comes to smaller businesses.
We’ve embarked on a three-phase journey with Mercedes-Benz Vans to help them keep businesses moving and meet their electric sales targets in a responsible, sustainable way.
Phase one: Awareness
The Mercedes-Benz family of eVans – the city-loving eVito, the long-distance eVito Tourer and the hardworking eSprinter – offers more fully electric solutions for businesses of all sizes, covering more sectors and specialities, than any other manufacturer right now. We launched an awareness campaign to draw a line in the sand: when it comes to electric, Mercedes-Benz Vans is the manufacturer to talk to.
Our TV ad showed Mercedes-Benz electric vans hard at work for small businesses, to show how ‘A little positive energy can move the world…’.
In the month our ad was launched, Mercedes-Benz grew their share of total electric van searches by 147%, and increased traffic to the electric range page by an incredible 1254%.
Phase two: Education
Now our hat is in the ring, it’s time to drive harder consideration and conversion through a second wave of content, designed to help customers to make informed decisions about switching to electric.
Working with Mercedes-Benz Vans’ partner research agency 7th Sense, we identified the spectrum of barriers and challenges standing in the way of potential buyers – and discovered that the three main culprits were cost, perceived limitations of charging, and the possibility that the battery range of electric vans wouldn’t be enough to meet demanding business needs.
The report also showed – perhaps unsurprisingly – that a significant number of people would be more likely to buy an electric van once they’d seen more of them on the roads.
Behavioural science tells us that social proof is a key factor in influencing our decisions, so while we couldn’t physically put more electric vans on the road, we could do the next best thing: we could show potential buyers how electric vans were helping real small businesses, right now, to cut costs and go the distance.
Using the three main barriers – range, cost and charging – as our focus, we created a series of articles and videos detailing the journeys of several inspiring businesses across the UK, who had already made the switch to electric.
From innovative start-ups such as eco-conscious architects U-Build, to everyday service providers like Phoenix Taxis, these van stories helped us to demonstrate the cost, efficiency and environmental benefits of choosing electric vans. Each story led to its own landing page delivering hard facts and compelling statistics to break down key barriers to purchase, as well as directing customers to further information on suitability, finance, aftercare and, of course, the online shop.
It’s early days for phase two and the results aren’t yet in – watch this space – but we’re already looking ahead to phase three and continuing to work with Mercedes-Benz Vans to create content to further support businesses on their journey to switching to a fully electric world. We’re optimistic that together, we can create the positive energy that will keep the world moving.
