Pretoria/The Old Shanghai Firecracker Factory has implemented an innovative billboard campaign to promote and educate consumers on the positive environmental impact of Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) Remanufactured GenuineParts.
“We needed to develop a campaign that was aimed at leaving a lasting impression in consumers’ minds,” says Old Shanghai Firecracker Factory Creative Director, David Taylor. “The message was simple – MBSA is totally committed to the environment through the use of Remanufactured GenuineParts.”
To showcase the environmental benefits of Remanufactured GenuineParts, each individual billboard featured a visual of a single Remanufactured GenuinePart. Over a three month period actual plants systematically started growing out of the visual until the Remanufactured GenuinePart was left completely covered with lush green plants. The copy line that supported the visual simply read: “Remanufactured GenuineParts. Totally committed to a greener environment.”
Taylor explains that the growing of the plants is a representation of the real and pragmatic commitment to the environment where MBSA doesn’t just throw away broken or malfunctioning parts. “Instead they restore them to their original quality standard. This reduces their carbon footprint and damage to the global environment,” he adds. “In addition, customers benefit from reduced prices for Mercedes-Benz quality parts that come with a warranty.”
He explains that by using recycled parts, Mercedes-Benz Remanufactured GenuineParts use less energy and raw materials in the manufacturing process without compromising its superior quality. “In fact, Mercedes-Benz saves up to 54 000 MWh of energy,” adds Taylor. “To put this into perspective Taylor says that is enough energy to power 17 0000 households for a whole year.”
To outline the benefit to the environment further he says that when remanufacturing a Mercedes-Benz V8 car engine, 67% of parts can be recycled, 32% goes into the remanufacturing process and just 1% remains unused.
Mercedes-Benz AfterSales business unit is responsible for the AfterSales elements of all vehicles sold by MBSA including passenger cars, commercial vehicles, and managed brands like Fuso, Freightliner and Western Star trucks. AfterSales includes all servicing, parts sales and procurement, maintenance plans, workshops, repair centres etc. The AfterSales business unit interacts with, and is an integral part of, all the divisions within MBSA, from finance to insurance to pre owned sales and functionality of dealerships.
As a leading global manufacturer of both passenger cars and commercial vehicles, the topic of sustainability has long been on the strategic agenda for MBSA and its parent company, Daimler AG, worldwide. The company is committed to designing lower emission and ultimately zero-emission vehicles, and is a pace-setter globally when it comes to developing hybrid and electric vehicles. The Daimler concept offers appropriate solutions for all areas of application – not only for individual mobility, but also public transport and goods transport on the roads
