#pr talks

I recently saw a post on LinkedIn on how this ad is meticulously planned to increase interest and memorability in audiences and the methods that Mercedes AMG marketing team use is

Schema Incongruity Theory by George Mandler (1982) from the University of California, San Diego.

I'm going to share it with everyone (also with my own words and research) sooo let me first break the theory down to each word's meaning:

A schema is a mental expectation of pattern we already have, e.g. in advertising, we often expect food ads to look appetizing, investment banking ads to look sleek and professional, health-related products ads to look clean, etc.

While incongruity means the quality of being inconsistent, incompatible, not harmonious, or otherwise in disagreement with an accepted mode or standard (APA Dictionary of Psychology).

Schema Incongruity Theory (commonly used in advertising) explains how people react when something (in this case, an advertisement) is slightly different from what they expect. When encountering the theory usage, rather than feeling weird because of the incongruity, people may feel the opposite! Even if generally, people are more used to the idea of something that truly lives up to their expectation.

This theory is totally different from the idea of traditional marketing where it was assumed that advertising works best when messages are consistent with consumers’ expectations about a brand. A research that was conducted by Halkias and Kokkinaki (2012) has empirically investigated that incongruity increases attention, deeper cognitive processing, and curiosity, leading to more positive emotional responses and better ad evaluation.

However, the incongruence must be done within the boundaries of a moderate incongruence. Moderate incongruence is like a small puzzle. The unexpected element can be understood with simple effort where the resolution can still create satisfaction where the positive feeling transfers to ad evaluation. It has to be moderate. It cannot be too extreme.

Why? Because if the elements are too extremely incongruent, people would have a negative feeling towards the ad because of the confusion and frustration stemmed from it being a 'nonsense', 'utter bullshit', 'what the fuck is this trying to say?!', 'give me back my 2 minutes of time!'

In the case of the advertisement for the Mercedes AMG GT 4-Door Coupe that garners a total of 7.3M views on youtube (from MBUK, MB, M.AMG channel), they manage to create a positive feeling towards the ad, product, and brand thanks to the Schema Incongruity Theory that was represented by both George Russell and Brad Pitt.

How did the theory work in the ad?

The main schema incongruity that became the center point of this ad is George Russell.

George Russell is a well-known Formula One driver (beloved to me 🤗🤗), while Brad Pitt is a well-known A list actor who just (coincidentally) played an F1 driver role in the F1 movie.

In the ad, George is portrayed to be a valet boy who picks up the oh-so famous actor Brad Pitt.

Then what is the incongruence?

George Russell is an F1 driver who becomes a valet worker to an actor who plays an F1 driver in the F1 movie.

Does it make sense? Absolutely yes. George Russell, a valet worker in the ad somehow showcases his ability to drift the car and he is still playing the role of a driver, which is perfectly in line with his real world job. And the decision to choose Brad Pitt with all of this planned stuff is also perfect because dude just wrapped up his F1 movie project. So it's like the two of them are in an alternate universe created by Mercedes AMG but the 'string' between it isn't fully severed.

A small interesting point I'd like to point out too that also puts the brand and product into the spotlight is a dialogue between the other valet worker and Brad Pitt where the valet worker said "big fan" and Brad Pitt thanked him before the valet worker eyed him weirdly and said "of the car" in continuation. In my personal interpretation, this specific narrative wants to send a message that "the brand and product will always be bigger than the actors in the ad" 🥶🥶

So if you feel that slight satisfaction or excitement when witnessing this ad, it may stem from the unconsciousness of your mind connecting the dots from the schema incongruity presented by both George Russell and Brad Pitt's role in this ad! As moderate incongruence in brand messaging has been empirically studied to lead stronger attention, better memory, deeper processing, and more positive attitudes compared with fully predictable or highly confusing ads.

The decision to choose both George Russell and Brad Pitt is incredibly a smart choice from both marketing communication strategy perspective and schema incongruity theory perspective. Kudos to the Mercedes AMG team!

— Sources

Halkias, G., & Kokkinaki, F. (2013). Cognitive and Affective Responses to Schema-incongruent Brand Messages: An Empirical Investigation. In A. Innocenti (Ed.), Neuroscience and the Economics of Decision Making (pp. 165-181). Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203122600

Do you know that Mercedes Benz once had to defend an advertisement featuring George Russell in front of the Australian Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) for it to not get banned?

It was this advertisement that George Russell did in 2023 for the Mercedes AMG C 63 S E

In 2024, a complaint was submitted to FCAI and Ad Standards raised concerns of dangerous and illegal driving regarding the advertisement.

While the advertisement had already featured the disclaimer,

'George Russell - Driver - Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team. Filmed on closed track. Overseas model shown.'

The complaint stated that,

"Vehicle shown speeding and losing traction/drifting - dangerous driving. Car driven illegally, company purposely using illegality to sell cars," 

Mercedes Benz responded to the complaint by stating that the ad does not show unsafe driving, but shows the vehicle’s capabilities when undergoing testing or proving on a closed-circuit without any other vehicles present and the scenes were permitted under clause 3 of the FCAI Code.

“The fact that the driver is a professional Formula 1 driver is specifically called out with the disclaimer ‘George Russell – Driver – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team. Filmed on a closed track. Overseas model shown’. MBAuP believes that any reasonable consumer would be unable to ignore this very specific message that is clearly visible for the entirety of the advertisement. The advertisement evidently makes use of fantasy, self-evident exaggeration and creative filming techniques” — Mercedes Benz

However, the Ad Standards panel of FCAI ruled that the ad's elements made the vehicle appear to be driving in a manner which was unsafe or which would breach road rules such as the driver holding his finger up to his lips in a “shhh” motion, as though he is doing something wrong.

Yes it was referring to this scene by George.

The reason why George does that move is to emphasize the car's Silent Mode (Electric Mode) for stealthy, emissions-free driving. Despite powered by a F1-inspired powertrain, it eliminates the loud startup revs of older V8s, allowing users to leave home quietly before unleashing its massive power.

The FCAI Ad Standards panel also stated that despite that some scenes were indeed highly stylised, the overall scenario was not unrealistic or fantastical and could be replicated by other drivers in the same vehicle.

"People viewing the advertisement could receive the message that this vehicle is designed to be driven at high speeds around corners including on public roads. If a non-professional driver attempted to drive in the same manner it could lead to an accident resulting in significant injury to the vehicle’s occupants."

So they deemed the whole fancy pantsy drifting and George going 🤫🤫🤫 as wrong and a bad influence.

Mercedes Benz later lost the appeal because the Ad Standards panel ruled that it breached FCAI Motor Vehicle Advertising Code\2(a) Unsafe driving.

The Mercedes AMG C 63 S E ad featuring George Russell has now been discontinued in Australia.

But worry not! It was just in Australia. The ad has since still available around the world for recent launches/promotional matters of C 63 S E in China, Malaysia, India, Singapore, Indonesia, and many others!

🗃️ I mainly post about GR63 (and only rep 63 in F1) but also do other posts on football (MCFC, Anthony Gordon, Mats Hummels, etc) or other interests of mine!

🎙️Doing opinionated talks and experience-based analysis regarding F1 (mostly Mercedes) from the Public & Media Relations, Journalism, Corporate & Strategic Communication perspective with previous work & study experience. I'm not labelling myself as a professional as i believe my experience can still be limited. I am very open to different and new insights so drop your thoughts on the ask box for us to discuss (reply duration might vary so please give me some of that grace 🙏🙏) . Learn to agree-to-disagree instead of forcing your opinions! What I say in a post is the limit of the discussion -> state context before expanding to avoid misunderstandings.

⚠️ Take discussions and speculations talk on here lightly and do not repost any of the discussion/talks material on other platform without authorization as everything is speculatory and I do not want to mislead/create an uncomfortable situation. Keep things within the Tumblr/Private bubble! All of the talks will be based on 1) real-world (industrial/business/sponsor/corporate) analysis, 2) prediction 3) data and evidence (with limits and specific criteria). However, some 'talks' are posted out of context, question me instead for the source/info/context and ask before reposting, do not repost carelessly. Things that are not tagged under general #George Russell #GR63 are not allowed to be reposted.

Less PR commitments ≠ smaller impact, forgettable, wrong choice

Take a look at what Mercedes AMG/Benz do

They did not use George for every car they drop but they use him for their star products that have bigger and long-term promotional investments than others (e.g. Concept AMG GT XX, GT 4DC, Concept AMG PureSpeed, 1974 Targa Florio restoration, etc)

And all of them make a great impact and publicity that goes both ways.

Same goes to Adidas, they didn't have to make him do 1027293737 tiktok videos or PR events in every race but the moment they featured him for a promotional purpose they gave him: George Russell x Real Madrid, George Russell x Champions League, George Russell x Su Yiming for Adizero EVO SL, George Russell x Jude Bellingham, George Russell x CLOT, and many others.

In marketing, there is a time and place for when we have to drop those smaller micro focused contents featuring specific types of public figures and when we have to plan big to make a one hit banger featuring the big names.

If AKA's reach is better than AMG would put him as face of the brand and on lots of their projects a long time ago lol but they kept putting George for mega projects. AMG have loved George even when LH who had the bigger engagement is there and has yet to announce his departure. He has been the face of AMG's EV promotions.

Also heavy on Adidas, if George's reach is not good then why only his stuff gets sold out on online/offline stores and within 1 minute? And the Adidas offline events in China are basically packed to the brim.

If George ain't selling either, then the corporate brands will also stop using him. But of course people will refer back to the social media olympics. The same engagement that exists because of certain fandoms bitterness towards George.

Note worthy regarding social media engagement that George's personal douyin engagement has more counts than non-George F1 related posts on MB China account.

Had George not done good in Asian countries then MB China would've plugged their investment off but they expanded to media partnerships with various local news and Tencent also regional sponsors in the Greater China region.

Of course such people will have such tunnel vision looking at "social media likes". Whenever you win, you'd get more likes lol. But let's do numbers on sponsorship engagement, offline customer acquisition and retention, buying power, and more. Social media makes a little percentage compared to that.

We all know that not only George was given the honour to receive the Lorenzo Bandini trophy in 2024 by the association but he was also given the honour by Mercedes Benz AG and Mercedes Benz Classics to drive the historical legendary 1924 Targa Florio while also using his award as a momentum to kickstart a significant PR campaign of theirs that will run through out 2024?

The Lorenzo Bandini Trophy is an annual award honouring an individual or team for their achievements in Formula One motor racing. The award, named after the Italian driver Lorenzo Bandini who died three days after suffering severe burns in a major accident at the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix, was established by Francesco Asirelli and Tiziano Samorè of the Brisighella commune in 1992

It is the year of 2024 and the Lorenzo Bandini Trophy event organizers just announced that they will award their trophy to George Russell as well as various other Mercedes staffs/engineers on May 15 2024.

Just later after the announcement, Mercedes announced that George Russell will be the first person to take the 1924 Targa Florio to the roads for the first time.

The 1924 Targa Florio has extreme significant historical context that I will break down to several points (which I still freak out everytime because they choose George for this job):

In the early 1920s, the Targa Florio was a top event in European motorsport. It offered German companies an important opportunity because, after the First World War, they were initially excluded from participating in the European Grand Prix Championship. They began competing in 1921 and a privateer won in a Mercedes in 1922.

But it wasn't until 1924, where Mercedes came back to the competition with a new car. A car that would rather carve a history in the world of motorsport and automobile.

The 1924 Mercedes Targa Florio was developed by Ferdinand Porsche, the founder of Porsche AG who was back then a Technical Director and Chief Development Officer of Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG).

Ferdinand Porsche recently moved from Austro Daimler to DMG and took theresponsibility for 1924 MTF's engine, revising the engine to increase power output without changing it's initial design

Paul Daimler, the eldest child of Gottlieb Daimler who founded Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and invented the petrol engine, is the one who designs the car.

In the 1924 Targa Florio that was held in Sicily, a Mercedes works driver, Christian Werner won the race with the same car George drives 100 years later and later the Mercedes team received the Coppa Termini as the best factory team.

From those significant and important history, we can basically say how this car might be one of the first cars that sets a history for both Mercedes and also Porsche.

in 2022, 2 years before the 100 year anniversary of the 1924 MTF and the 130 years of their motorsport excellence journey, Mercedes Benz and Mercedes Benz Classic decides to rebuild the original 2-litre Targa Florio racing car from the company’s own collection as authentically as possible for the anniversary in 2024.

a bit of a conspiracy theory: found it weird how this was so coincidental, george winning lorenzo bandini -> targa florio completed and ready to be used + 2 mercedes significant anniversaries. if the lorenzo bandini trophy were to be awarded for drivers who make significant achievements in motor racing then shouldn't george be awarded in 2023 for his 2022 performance instead of 2024 for his 2023 performance? i'm not surprised if this is an intentional timing set up

In the April of 2024, less than one month to George Russell's Lorenzo Bandini award ceremony, the 1924 Mercedes Targa Florio completed its first drive following the restoration – on the test track at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Untertürkheim.

April 27 2024 -> Mercedes releases the first episode to a short Targa Florio restoration documentary featuring key Mercedes Benz figures such as Ola Kallenius as CEO of Mercedes Benz Group, Marcus Breitschwerdt as CEO Mercedes‑Benz Heritage GmbH, and other key figures of Mercedes Benz Classics who were involved in the restoration projects.

This will be the beginning of the whole Mercedes' PR strategy for their Targa Florio restoration project that will go on for the rest of 2024.

May 15 2024 -> George hits the road from Faenza to Brisighella, driving the 1924 Targa Florio from Faenza to his Lorenzo Bandini ceremony in Brisighella. This journey is documented by Mercedes through the second episode of their Targa Florio docuseries, a special column by Mercedes, and his demo run was broadcasted by Sky Italy.

He also had a test run with the 1924 Mercedes Targa Florio in Imola with Karl Wendlinger, former Formula 1 racing driver and brand ambassador for Mercedes‑Benz Classic 

May 16 2024 -> Sky Sports has a special segment where George drives the 1924 Targa Florio with a former F1 driver and now pundit, Timo Glock

That was the end of George Russell's involvement with the 1924 Targa Florio. But was that it overall? No! Because I said, George's role here is important due to him being chosen as a mega year-long project kickstarter. His image as the representation of the 1924 Mercedes Targa Florio restored version would carry on later to a couple of Mercedes events around the world.

Italy (GR's Lorenzo Bandini award - start of the project) -> Germany (Solitude Revival in Leonberg) -> Germany (F1 Driver Day in Immendingen) -> United Kingdom (Goodwood Festival of Speed at West Sussex) -> US (Pebble Beach Automotive Week in California) -> Italy (Targa Florio Clasica in Sicily) -> Germany (Mercedes Benz Museum - end of project)

Also? This whole ahh post is not just some mere Ari's waffles and theories and speculations that hateful anons think "ohhh you are just trying so hard to prove they cared about George >:(" and come at me in the askbox. Well if you think like that, I am sorry to disappoint you but

This connection and strategy is indeed a fact and was confirmed and said by the then Mercedes Benz's Board of Management for Marketing & Sales, Britta Seeger 😁😁😁