A handful of years ago content creators focusing exclusively on automobiles would have been an uncommon sight. In what is accepted as a standard practice today, creating social media channels based on a niche interest, was a pioneering step for the gentlemen at Mr. Benz.
“Back in the day it was not normal to do so, showing cars. Social media of six years ago, there were just a handful of people doing this at that time. And, yeah, that’s how we started. The entire motivation was just to share our passion, the models, and there was a small community of Mercedes-Benz content creators back in the day, and also connecting with all of these guys, making friends online.”
Engaging content
Since those early days Mr. Benz has steadily grown in reputation. With more than 3 million followers combined on social media, the team is expanding on YouTube as well as TikTok, making Mr. Benz one of the biggest automotive content creators in Germany. The team continued making inroads and even landed an article in one of the biggest online automotive magazines: Motor1.
With their most watched video amassing well over 2.8 million views on Youtube, the gentlemen at Mr. Benz shared the secret sauce behind their success.
“The team behind this is very, very passionate. Everything we do is for passion and not for money. We have been doing this for five or six years and we don’t show any advertisements or product placements on our channels. It’s just pure content and love for the brand.”
Hearts of gold
Giving back to their fans and supporters lies at the heart of Mr. Benz and it is not uncommon for fans to receive surprises in the mail. “We will be actually choosing the people who always support, always give love and to this continuously. We will be just messaging them, telling them to send me your address. Then we will be sending them stuff – which we already did a lot of times back in the past.”
The giving does not stop there. The gentlemen at Mr. Benz revealed an exciting plan for the future that is sure to make a few dreams come true. “We want to do a giveaway and then fly in followers from abroad. Then they can also experience some nice and cool cars with us. And we’ll be showing, for example, Mercedes-Benz factory, Brabus factory, and the latest cars right around… We have a lot of passionate people in our audience who actually don’t have the opportunity to drive the latest cars. That’s what we’re going to do.”
Automatic or stick shift?
When presented with the age old question whether automatic or stick shift was preferable, Mr. Benz shared this little nugget of wisdom: “Automatic, definitely. Because when driving from A to B, especially in the city where we live, sometimes traffic is very stressful so automatic is the way to go. But as soon as you have a weekend drive or maybe a race track day, then definitely stick shift, because it’s a much more fun experience, especially with faster cars.” Few automobile reviewers can settle this debate so amicably, as the gentlemen at Mr. Benz pointed out, it depends on the situation.
Watch this space
“My team started from the bottom. We had one vision, while we did not even have the financial opportunities, nor our drivers licenses. We started taking pictures in dealerships where they always kicked us out.” With unbridled tenacity and determination the gentlemen at Mr. Benz succeeded in their goal of working with Mercedes-Benz.
The reward? Being able to experience the latest Mercedes-Benz and AMG vehicles up to two months before their official release. It is through this exclusive relationship with Mercedes-Benz that the gentleman got to experience the 2022 Mercedes-Benz C-Class in a pre-production prototype state. In an interesting twist Mr. Benz took the C-Class to the maximum on an unrestricted section of the Autobahn. It was a rare treat to see a pre-production vehicle driven close to top speed, with the digital dash indicating a whopping 157 mph or 252 km/h at one stage.
With positivity and community defining the heart of the brand that is Mr. Benz it is quite clear that their unadulterated love for all things Mercedes and AMG will continue to shine brightly as they pursue their biggest goal yet: becoming the top authoritative voice in the automobile space that could rival the likes of Top Gear.
Share
Contributors
