Research by Mercedes-Benz Vans found that 66% of the public believe van drivers are uneducated – and 71% of drivers saying they have felt judged or underestimated.

Read on to learn how we helped Mercedes-Benz Vans change the narrative to try and shift these outdated perceptions, with an organic social campaign that generated 182,000 engagements from a van community keen to show off its creative side...

Never judge a book by its cover
Van drivers are an essential part of this country’s infrastructure and, in reality, come from all walks of life. This campaign aimed to show off the intellect, talent and creativity of van drivers across the UK – and change public opinion with emotive, memorable messages.

Working with Mercedes-Benz Vans UK, we developed ‘Poetry in Motion’ – a national poetry competition with one condition… van drivers only.

Driving the campaign
Through social media, dealerships and PR, we encouraged the UK’s van community to share its stories of van life, through the medium of poetry. And they did not disappoint.

Response rates exceeded expectations, with hundreds of entries, of a remarkably high quality across the board. Subjects involved daily commutes, faithful 4-legged drivers’ mates, memories of family businesses and all manner of trades and locations.

A night to remember
After an independent judging panel shortlisted the very best submissions, we invited finalists to perform their poetry live in front of a packed audience – with the grand prize of a brand-new Mercedes-Benz Sprinter awarded to winners Nikki and Russell Eatley, with the poem, ‘The Work Wife’.

Nikki - who wrote the poem - entered for very personal reasons. “My father was a tradesman, and it used to really bug me that people looked down their noses at him,” she said. “The perception is that van drivers are ignorant, uneducated.” When she heard about the competition, she thought, “I could have a go at doing that. I had the idea of something like She, by Elvis Costello, a love story to our van”. Check out their winning poem below.

All of the shortlisted poems featured in a ‘Vanthology’ published by Mercedes-Benz Vans UK – marking a first for the industry and attracting media coverage from the likes of the Guardian.

As well as challenging the public to think again about outdated stereotypes, the campaign outperformed against its objective to engage with the UK’s van driving community, exceeding targets by up to 80%. It was a joy to help Mercedes-Benz Vans shine a light on such a creative, diverse group of people, and a pleasure to meet some of them at the live poetry slam - sneak a peek at what went on below…