Mercedes-Benz presents: BAM Festival 2019

Campaign objectives

BAM 2019 was the second year that Mercedes-Benz presented Hong Kong’s largest outdoor, interactive car show and lifestyle festival at Central Harbourfront. Featuring test drive experiences, live entertainment, F&B vendor village, expert talks and tech-meets-lifestyle exhibitions, BAM brings together the people, lifestyle brands and products shaping contemporary Hong Kong lifestyle.

Time Out Hong Kong was tasked to create and execute a comprehensive promotional plan to achieve the following:

Attendance

Generate footfall to the event and double the attendance of the previous year by raising awareness on our platforms.

Brand Association

Position Mercedes-Benz as a leading pioneer in technology and contemporary lifestyle.

Drive trial

Potential customer acquisition through test drive signups.


The pitch

Time Out offers an integrated marketing approach. All of the possible digital touch points (social, written content, newsletters, native advertising) are effectively exploited, capitalising on every interaction of Mercedes-Benz with our English and Chinese-speaking audience. As Time Out understands that Mercedes-Benz aims to position itself as a brand where contemporary lifestyle meets automotive and technology, we suggested adding an additional element to the marketing mix by integrating our expertise as Food & Drink experts to offer an offline, onsite experience at the festival. Seeing as the festival was missing a unique beverage experience, we wanted to bring our content to life with a two-day only pop-up bar in partnership with No.1 on 2019 Asia’s 50 Best Bars list, The Old Man, and exclusively only at BAM 2019.

 


The execution

Promotion

Time Out inspires readers to discover and experience the best of the city Leveraging this platform, we curated inspirational content to cover all areas of BAM 2019, with a call to action for readers to register for entry, and a priority test drive available exclusively only for Time Out readers. 

Time Out's First Look at Mercedes BAM Festival 2019 was published on both English and Chinese websites to promote the event. The content provided an in-depth look at the on-site activations, as well as the launch of the brand’s first, fully electric vehicle, the EQC. The content not only interested Time Out's audience of cultural explorers, but also excited the city's car owners and tech enthusiasts to sign up for test-drives, and participate in other activities at the event. The bespoke content is amplified via a wide range of digital executions to drive awareness and engagement. On social, we provided teasers and behind-the-scenes festival content to drive awareness and boost footfall. Mercedes-Benz took over Time Out Hong Kong's Instagram account during the festival weekend, where they posted behind-the-scenes footage, giving followers sneak-peeks and first-looks to the activations across Music, EQC, eSport, Food & Fitness.

Time Out x The Old Man Pop-up Bar

In line with BAM’s slogan, our audience want to be doing, drinking and eating whatever is new, now and next, before others even know about it. Hong Kong’s leading authority on entertainment and events coming together with Asia’s best bar for two days-only generated talkability, buzz and attendance. We designed, built and operated a two-day only pop-up, bringing to life the Time Out x The Old Man Pop-up Bar.

Platforms

Live activation
Conceptualising, building and operating a two-day festival bar.

Time Out website

Our campaign commenced with bespoke content pieces on a first look at Mercedes BAM Festival 2019 and 平治最大型的汽車品牌活動.

Once the Time Out Hong Kong audience were made aware of the event, we went behind the scenes to bring four things to enjoy at BAM Festival 2019  and Time Out 香港 x The Old Man 限定酒吧四大亮點.

Native ads
Run of site display units strategically targeted across desktop and mobile sites.

Newsletter branded content
The content pieces were pushed through premium tiles in our weekly newsletter, at relevant intervals.

Facebook

Sponsored posts in English and Chinese reached over 136,000 people combined.


Instagram
Sponsored posts, and live, behind-the-scenes IG story coverage at the event.


Results

12,000+

attendees vs. 5,000 in 2018

350+

test drives vs. 50 in 2018

12

cars sold on-site vs. 2 in 2018

15,000+

newsletter subscribers reached

200,000+

display impressions delivered on Things to Do section to boost event sign-ups

24,000+

unique page views

130,000+

reached on social media pre-event

22,000+

active social media users reached on Instagram during real-time event highlights