Campaign makes interesting use of LED technology to market new message to consumers
To promote its new fuel cell technology, luxury car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz went in the complete opposite direction of what most companies do when marketing a new product: As opposed to inundating consumers with hundreds of shots of the car, they made the vehicle completely invisible. And they did this using LED technology.
Mercedes used LED lights to give the impression of an invisible vehicle.
The way they pulled this off was they outfitted one side of the car with a mat of LEDs. On the other side, the team at Mercedes mounted a Canon 5D Mark II digital SLR camera. The video that the camera picked up was then displayed on the LED side of the vehicle.
The idea behind the concept is to highlight how the car’s new technology has zero impact on the environment; thus, the idea that the car isn’t actually there (pause for everyone’s “ah-ha” moment).
Marketing criticisms aside, the use of LED technology is pretty cool. Here are some shots of how it all turned out:
The Mercedes mini-van was first outfitted with a mat of LEDs:
The mat of LEDs covered one side of the vehicle:
On the other side, a Canon 5D Mark II digital SLR camera was mounted to the car:
The Mercedes van was parked in a public square where local passerby’s could have fun with the technology:
The car was also driven around, both during the day . . .
. . . and at night:
According to Mercedes, their new fuel cell technology — the real story here, mind you — is ready for production. However, a majority of reports state that the car won’t actually begin commercialization until 2014. ■
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