Mercedes-Benz lights up its ‘Sound with Power’ campaign
Mercedes-Benz UK has unveiled its new ‘Sound with Power’ campaign – a unique suit that simulates how emotion can be expressed through a series of LED lights – featuring international music artist Tinie Tempah. The new multi-media campaign explores how sound has the power to incite a range of emotions, such as excitement, happiness or nostalgia.
The cleverly designed special-effects suit simulates physical response to sound, and feeds this into built-in LED light panels, demonstrating how tech innovation can be applied to clothing. The exciting collaboration with Tinie Tempah adds to the campaign’s amazing fusion of sight and sound with the rapper’s ‘Pass Out’ track featuring in the advert.
Airing in October, the new Mercedes-Benz E 63 AMG campaign opens on a driver being fitted with the suit and an ear piece. He is then played various evocative sounds, such as a baby giggling, crashing waves, a favourite piece of music and the roar of the new E 63 AMG. As he hears each sound the suit lights-up in different ways. The culmination of the ad shows these emotional sounds building to create an exciting, emotionally resonant 'mash-up' track.
With its hand-built bi-turbo 5.5-litre engine the E 63 AMG emits a soul-stirring sound to intensely light up the suit. Even at idle the purposeful rumble of the V8 hints at the phenomenal driving experience of the powerful saloon, while a blip of the throttle sends a thunderous and addictive note out of the performance-tuned exhaust that underlines its supercar-beating ability.
Helping to bring the context of ‘Sound with Power’ to life online, the campaign features exclusive interviews with Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 driver Lewis Hamilton, and Euronics Mercedes AMG DTM driver Gary Paffett.
Andrew Mallery, Marketing Director for Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars said: “’Sound with Power’ follows on from the success of our previous ‘Escape the Map’ and ‘YOUDRIVE’ campaigns. It innovatively conveys an exciting message about how sounds influence emotions and then invites the viewer to go one step further and engage with the brand online.”
Running alongside the TV ad is an online ‘mash-up’ tool at soundwithpower.com. This tool allows users to build, layer upon layer, their own personal music and video ‘mash-up’ using a range of sounds. Once the user has created their own ‘mash-up’ they can share their creation on Twitter, using #soundwithpower, for a chance to have their version air on TV during the campaign.
‘Sound with Power’ will appear in cinemas alongside three of the biggest major blockbusters of the year: Thor: The Dark World; The Hunger Games: Catching Fire; and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – and use innovative digital platforms to showcase and support the ‘re-mixing deck’, including an exclusive three month partnership with Spotify.
The campaign will run across national media from 5 October until mid-November and also have prime spots on television. It will feature in the advertisement breaks for X Factor on 5 October (ITV), Homeland on 6 October (Channel 4) and during ITV’s coverage of the England vs Poland football match on 15 October.
