In many ways, the US has acted as a testing ground for how to reach consumers through entertainment – from content inventions like the 'soap opera' through to product placement. In this sense, a marketer in the US is a victim of the nation’s success – with so much branded content out there, how to cut through?

A larger challenge is how to approach branded content on social channels, where just as they once where on television, the boundaries are still being defined. The opportunity to reach an audience that currently rejects traditional advertising is obvious, but doing so in an authentic way is key. Brands that get the balance wrong typically experience earned media and consumer engagement for all the wrong reasons.

We challenged Instagram’s five best photographers to spend five days each behind the wheel of the Mercedes-Benz CLA. Each would document their trip, sharing six photos a day on their Instagram account and the Mercedes-Benz Instagram account. The hook? Whoever got the most likes, kept the CLA.

And while the influencer’s audiences unlocked substantial organic reach, we amplified this by syndicating both the content and experience across other owned and paid channels. The images were shared to our Facebook (2 million+ followers) and Twitter (220,00 followers) communities, while a responsive campaign hub (CLA Take The Wheel) allowed consumers to follow the current scores of the influencers, explore the images and track who was winning.

A campaign trailer was developed and used in both pre-roll and interactive rich media. An additional rich media execution allowed consumers to see the very latest images from the competition.

The unconventional approach delivered: on Instagram, the content achieved 87 million organic impressions, with just over 2 million likes. Outside of Instagram, there were 549,000 social mentions on Facebook and Twitter - and this conversation was 90% net positive. In August, with no other marketing, there were 3.5 million visits to MBUSA.com, the highest in the site’s history – and 47% of all consumers who visited the CLA pages were below the age of 35. When the car was released in September, it broke sales records.