Mercedes-Benz and Amazon Prime Team Up For A Magical Experience In The Cinderella Campaign
Actress and singer Camila Cabello was recently interviewed by the Hollywood Reporter, detailing her experience as playing the role of the iconic character, Cinderella. “It was one of the most fun experiences of my life. Growing up I was always a huge princess fan. I love that this version is funny and empowered.” Here is all the latest on the film that is set to be released on September 3rd.
Once the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the film industry was forced to look at streaming as a second option. In the same way, Cinderella initially started as Sony’s project, eventually made its way to Amazon Prime Video. However, in a surprising twist, the luxury German automaker, Mercedes-Benz teamed up with Amazon to release a multi-layered campaign that promotes personal strength and celebrates female empowerment.
In this campaign, Cabello is featured in a television commercial for the film, as well as the movie’s director and writer, Kay Cannon, and producer, Shannon McIntosh. It went digital this week (Aug, 2nd).
In the ad, which has the moniker “Rewrite the Story,” the gang repeats lines that are often used to try to belittle women and put them aside: “Just play your role.” Don’t be so dramatic.” “Be the perfect princess.” “Don’t be so bossy.” At one point, a camera woman says, “Honey, you’re prettier when you smile.”
Towards the end of the ad, Cabello walks toward a G-Wagon saying, “It’s time for a new story, the one we write,” followed by a caption saying “A new kind of Cinderella has arrived” The singer told the Reporter “I love this message of empowerment. I think more and more women are writing the narrative of what women can do. We are powerful, fearless, smart, and can do anything.” Additionally, Mercedes-Benz allied with the advertising agency on this commercial, which utilized Rachel McDonald of Biscuit Filmworks as the director. You should expect to see this ad run on network and cable channels starting Aug. 23.
Also part of the campaign is actor Billy Porter. In the film, he plays Fab G, a genderless fairy godparent, which echoes the progressive message of Mercedes-Benz. Porter is working with the automaker on designing a personalized Mercedes-Maybach S 560, using colors, orange and gold glitter. This scheme is named “chariot”, which is inspired by Cinderella and Porter’s Godmother character.
Said Porter in a statement, “It’s about time we see a modern-day representation of Cinderella. I want to change the world and encourage people to believe that they can be whoever and whatever they want to be, as long as they stay true to themselves. I’m excited to work with Mercedes-Benz on this campaign where the message of individuality is at the forefront as we empower aspiring girl bosses everywhere to embark on their own journey to the top.”
Ukonwa Ojo, Amazon Prime’s CMO (Chief Marketing Officer), says that creating partnerships with brands Mercedes-Benz amongst its strategy of using features like Cinderella as major tent poles on the platform.
“We acquired the Cinderella movie from Sony and then we basically hit the ground running, transitioning the relationships and the partnership from Sony to Amazon,” Ojo tells THR, “This is a transition for us and we’ve been increasing the number of just these big tentpole films that we bring to our members on the service and it’s been so well received. We look at the premieres like we would as a large theatrical premiere. We show it as much attention and love as if it was in theaters. We want to make sure that every fan out there is open to magic and wants to be transported on this truly beautiful, magical journey and raise awareness to all of our markets around the world. We’ve shown that we can deliver as big of a scope and scale — and a lot of times a bigger scope and scale on the Prime Video service than we would do if it was theatrical only.”
This collaboration with Mercedes-Benz is more than just a TV commercial or even online content, it also extends into a live-stream fashion show, “Dressed for a Dream” scheduled for Aug. 28. Porter will serve as the host alongside actress Jamie Chung. Along with “Inside Ella’s Closet” will show a behind-the-scenes exclusive with costumes from the film. Viewers will see Ellen Mirojnick, the film’s costume designer and Mercedes-Benz brand ambassador giving us a tour.
“This is a film that we expect to have a really strong, multi-generational, multi-sectional, intersectional impact,” says Ojo. “The team has done a really great job at being very strategic about how we reach different audiences with this 360 campaign and the partnerships like we have with Mercedes are examples of how we’re able to tap into new audiences, so all the lovers of Mercedes are going to, you know, lean in a little bit harder than they would otherwise, right, because they’re gonna see a brand that they love, or an actor they love like Billy Porter.”
Head of Mercedes-Benz the Brand Experience, Monique Harrison said “COVID made all of us rethink how things would be launched and I will say we’re pretty happy with the way that this transitioned. It was something that we were looking forward to being in theaters, but it’s because it’s what we knew and it was what was expected at the time. With everything starting to move towards streaming it made perfect sense for us to start to move with it and to launch this film with Sony and now with Amazon Prime, in this streaming format. It’s the first for us but I don’t think it will be the last.”
The film does not feature any Mercedes-Benz vehicles. “I actually liked that,” continues Harrison, “because it gives us an opportunity to showcase various vehicles outside of the film — whether it’s Camila showcasing it from Cinderella’s perspective and the power that has or Billy having a bit more fun with it and bringing forth this Fab G character in his Maybach. It’s a completely different take on vehicles and how we bring those in. And you’ll continue to see that as we continue the activation. A nice thing you can do is integrate a few cars in the film — which, who are we kidding, we’ll still do in the future — but this approach gives us a more well-rounded view of how to bring it all together.”
Adds Ojo, “That’s the value that we get from partnerships like this is, it gives us an opportunity to expand our audience. The partnership with Mercedes allows us, whether it’s from a TV campaign to a fashion show to this totally slicked Maybach that I wish was mine. It’s being able to tap into these different audiences and communities as a result of the partnership and we’re really excited about that.”
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