MERCEDES-BENZ is putting its cars in the hands of youths in a marketing push with Nintendo to develop exclusive Mercedes-themed video game content.

The partnership with the German luxury car-maker and gaming giant Nintendo, first revealed in August 2014, has resulted in real-world Mercedes cars turning up in Mario Kart 8 – the first time any authentic vehicles have appeared in the cartoon racing game.

The three vehicles include the W25 Silver Arrow, iconic 300SL Roadster and Mercedes’ GLA small-sized SUV. They can all be piloted by popular Nintendo mascots including Mario, Donkey Kong and Link from The Legend of Zelda series.

Mercedes has also released a custom level for the Super Mario Maker game. In this level, the player controls Mario through a Mercedes dealership where he picks up a GLA and then proceeds to navigate through a city, multi-level carpark and freeway before arriving home.

Mercedes-Benz head of marketing communication Dr Jens Thiemer said at the release of the three virtual cars for Mario Kart that the alliance with Nintendo is a great way to increase brand exposure in a booming medium.

“Video and computer games are widespread throughout the world, and have a large fan community,” he said.

“With our presence in blockbuster games such as Mario Kart 8 we approach to modern focus groups and are achieving excellent results in making our brand more youthful.

“We are particularly proud of the fact that we are the first automobile brand to be represented with real vehicles in Mario Kart 8.”

Nintendo has been a staple in the video game landscape since it first released a home gaming console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), in 1983 in its home market of Japan. It was released in Australia two years later bundled with the original Super Mario Bros game.

Since then, Nintendo has released the Game Boy in 1989, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1990, the Nintendo 64 in 1996, the Nintendo DS in 2004, the Wii in 2006 and now offers the Wii U home console and Nintendo 3DS handheld.
Speaking to GoAuto, Mercedes-Benz Australia manager of public relations and product communications Jerry Stamoulis revealed the partnership was a mutually beneficial move for both parties involved.

“We do a lot with gaming,” he said.

“When Mario Kart 8 came out we worked very closely with them (Nintendo).

“These types of partnerships allow us to talk to a younger generation and may want to know more about Mercedes-Benz.”

While the small-sized SUV market is the largest growing segment worldwide, Mr Stamoulis said the inclusion of the GLA in both Nintendo games was all down to timing.

“At that time we were launching the GLA so it was a natural fit, there is some thought behind it.”

The Nintendo partnership isn’t the first time Mercedes has made it into the video game world.

In 2010, the then-new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG was featured as the cover car for the widely popular Playstation simulation racing game, Gran Turismo 5.

Mr Stamoulis called the partnership with Gran Turismo, “probably the biggest partnership that we’ve ever done”, with the theory being that marketing in a video game will increase brand awareness at an earlier age and also revealed another initiative to achieve a similar goal.

“We place a strong value on marketing towards a younger audience that may not have a licence, or may not have a licence for a very long time,” he said.

“Formula One also does that for us. So Formula One allows us to talk to a younger generation who, in the past, may never have considered a Mercedes-Benz or known what it was.

“Previous generations may not have had a Mercedes-Benz picture up on their wall, but now there is Lewis Hamilton with his Formula One car up on their bedroom walls.”

This marketing directional shift has paid dividends, with early reports indicating that Mercedes has finished 2015 as the second-best selling luxury car brand on the planet, ahead of Audi and closing in on BMW.

Here in Australia, Mercedes-Benz finished the year with a totally of 36,374 sales, a 14 per cent jump over 2014’s sales. It’s most dominant segment, the medium sedan over $60,000 category, saw its C-Class and CLA-Class combine to account for just over 50 per cent of the market share.

In fact, the C-Class sold so well that its 2015 total sales figure of 9373 vehicles is more than the combined totals of its BMW 3 Series, Audi A4 and Lexus IS competitors.

By Tung Ngyuen