Driving brand engagement: How Frontify supports Mercedes-Benz to boost adoption and consistency
Mercedes-Benz is one of the world's most successful automotive companies. It’s recognized globally as a high-end brand, thanks to innovative and forward-looking technologies, the safety and quality of the vehicles and the commitment to excellence of its global brand design team. Creating a consistent, top-notch brand identity can still be a challenge. With Frontify’s platform they were able to increase consistency in brand references and adoption by providing easy access to brand assets and resources.
A scalability challenge
Since 2005, the Brand Design System team at Mercedes-Benz has been transforming the way they managed and implemented the brand. After several years, the team started hitting the limitations of their old system. Driven by the need for more customization possibilities, more integrations, and the desire to push the boundaries of UX and consistency even more, the BDS team made the switch to Frontify in April 2023.
Their aim was to scale brand consistency throughout the business, by switching to a platform that was easier and more intuitive for people to engage with. They wanted a platform that would make it easy for everyone to find and access the right brand information and that would empower the users. The desktop app alone became that “one more thing” that just increased the proximity to the brand making it more tangible for every end user.
A customizable solution
Frontify and Mercedes-Benz implemented a platform together for the Mercedes-Benz Brand Design System that met their security requirements, and also helped everyone in the organization to better connect and engage with the brand.
Since switching to Frontify, Mercedes-Benz has seen a steady increase in brand engagement and adoption across the business and its brands. In October 2023 it had 32,000 total registered users on the platform, and by July 2024 that had increased to over 46,000, thanks to an efficient onboarding process and smooth user experience on the Frontify platform.
Daniel Hoolachan
Project Manager Corporate Design
As well as increasing brand engagement, the platform Itself has helped boost brand consistency too, by customizing the Frontify platform in a way that meets their specific branding needs. They’ve created a visually appealing platform that people like to use. One way they’ve done this is by developing custom blocks for their brand guidelines with the Frontify Brand SDK. One example is their “Star Size Calculator” custom block, which helps users working out size of the company's logo, based on where and how it’s being used – a powerful guideline tool for on-brand banner and ad creations.
The Brand Design System team also uses the Frontify DAM to store, organize, and share all their brand assets seamlessly. The DAM now has dedicated libraries for logos, fonts, and icons. For the first time in the brand’s history, Mercedes-Benz has all its icons stored in one central location. This makes it incredibly simple for users to find the correct ones to use in just a few clicks.
To make their brand portal even more accessible to the Mercedes-Benz team, the Brand Design System team rolled-out the desktop app in parallel to the portal. This has been fully customized and designed to look and work like a Mercedes-Benz app which is pre-installed for every employee to access the DAM, guidelines, templates, and other resources right from their desktop. Already 25% of employees are using it exclusively to access the Mercedes-Benz brand platform.
Daniel Hoolachan
Project Manager Corporate Design
Additionally, Mercedes-Benz is able to visually manage all its brands (Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-AMG, and Mercedes-Maybach) and entities in one unified Brand Design System with Frontify. Hence, the Brand Design System team can manage all their brands from one location, making it easier to roll-out updates or even just find relevant assets quickly.
An outstanding outcome
Frontify and Mercedes-Benz worked together to increase brand awareness, adoption, and engagement across the business. Since it launched in April 2023, they’ve seen the following results from the Frontify brand portal:
- over 46,000 people globally have used the Mercedes-Benz brand portal, with 6,200 using it every month
- over 6 million asset downloads from the DAM
- over 750,000 pageviews of the Mercedes-Benz brand guidelines
- Dedicated libraries storing all icons, fonts, and logos in one place for the first time in the brand’s history
- Desktop app increases brand adoption, used exclusively by 25% of users.
The Frontify platform became a new home for everything related to the Mercedes-Benz brand - a solution that will scale and adapt to meet their changing needs in the years to come. The Brand Design System team is confident that it will support their deployment of new brand initiatives and strengthen the connection of the team with the brand.
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