Fuel costs are a constant topic in today’s media, with
consumers making being more conscious about fuel efficiency than ever before.
The 2012 model year also marks the arrival of the Mercedes-Benz C250, the most
fuel efficient Mercedes-Benz vehicle ever sold in the United States, making 31
mpg highway (estimated). In addition to purchasing a more fuel efficient car,
driving style can significantly affect fuel consumption. To highlight the fuel
efficiency of the new C250 as well as how driving can impact performance, we
held The Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City MPG Challenge, a one lap race of the 435
highway loop around Kansas City, where the team with the highest MPG average
would win.
To promote this event we chose to team up with 810 WHB, the
most listened-to radio station in the Kansas City area. Two of their top hosts,
Todd Leabo and Frank Boal, volunteered to ride along in the vehicles and
provide commentary during the event on 810’s afternoon radio show, which is
also the most listened-to show in Kansas City.
We picked 2 fans online to drive the vehicles for the event,
with a challenge issued via Twitter. Prospective competitors were asked to
tweet us using the #MBKCMPG hashtag and tell us the strategy they would use to
win the event. We leveraged our Facebook community of over 2,000 fans and our
YouTube channel to promote the contest. After a week, we selected two of the
most vocal entrants to drive the vehicles. The winning driver would receive a
$200 gas card courtesy of BP, and the loser would still get $100.
In addition to the contestants, each vehicle represented a
local charity, with Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City partner Sleepyhead Beds and 810 Radio’s 810
Cares for KC sponsoring a car. $200 was donated to the winning charity and
$100 was donated to the losing charity.
Leading up to the day of the event, smack talk ensued
between the radio hosts on-air and online as well as between the two
contestants. We gave information on the Mercedes-Benz C250 to the teams via
YouTube video, and used our own social media platforms to build excitement
about the competitions.
The day of the event both teams met at Mercedes-Benz of
Kansas City, where two fueled C250s waited for them. The vehicles were equipped
with tracking units courtesy of our partners at Garmin, a global leader in GPS
devices based in Kansas City. This allowed us to monitor team progress, make
sure no one stopped for gas, and ensured that posted speed limits were obeyed throughout
the event.
The teams took off and completed the 91 mile lap of the 435
loop in just less than two hours, giving updates to the radio audience by
phone-in and to the online audience via Twitter. The winning team arrived 15
minutes ahead of the losing team, and averaged 37.9 mpg for the race, with the
runner up averaging 36.8 mpg. The results were updated online and on the radio,
settling some intense smack talk and highlighting the fuel efficiency of the
new Mercedes-Benz C250.
The radio station has an estimated 50,000 daily listeners
who heard the event mentioned 30 times in the week leading up to it. During the
event itself, the teams called in 6 separate times to the radio station while
on the air.
On Twitter, there were over 150 tweets that included the
event hashtag, which reached over 16,000 different accounts, and had a total of
over 81,000 impressions.
