The hydrogen-fuel-cell-technology F-CELL produces 0.0 emissions, which means: it’s invisible to the environment. This thought was executed with a spectacular event: by covering one side of the B-Class F-CELL with LEDs and the other side with a camera which transmitted images directly to the LEDs, we made the B-Class invisible. A 1-week road show through Germany promoted the innovative technology. The documentary of the promotion turned into a viral. The promotion allowed Mercedes-Benz to engage its customers in a dialogue: offline – on the street handing out invitations to go to their closest showrooms and test drive them – and online – via numerous social media platforms and blogs around the world.

The objective of the direct campaign was to promote and increase the awareness of the Mercedes-Benz hydrogen fuel-cell technology F-CELL. Furthermore, the activity’s aim was to let people experience that this technology is invisible to the environment. The overall objective of the campaign was to position Mercedes-Benz as an innovative brand.

The YouTube video was watched more than 10m times. It received 60,000 'likes', 14,000 comments and 21,000 users selected it as their favourite. Our documentary was ranked as No.1 in the ‘Viral Video Charts’, beating superstars such as ‘Akon’ and ‘Pitbull’. During the campaign the search terms ‘F-CELL’ and ‘Invisible Mercedes’ enjoyed a disproportionate increase. Several international newspapers, TV and radio stations spread our story. But not only them: our target audience turned into brand ambassadors, too. Overall, the campaign gained over 450m media impressions around the globe, helping to increase the awareness of Mercedes-Benz F-CELL technology by 43%.

The campaign promoting the F-CELL technology had to be just as innovative as the technology itself. By turning the B-Class F-CELL invisible with the help of the LED construction, we created a perfect way to demonstrate the USP of the technology – its invisibility to the environment.