Brief:

• Mercedes-Benz is promoting its A-Class sedan with a contest that urges Instagram users to share their bucket lists on the image-sharing app, according to an announcement. The carmaker will select winners and use the A-Class to help them cross off things they want to do before "kicking the bucket."
• Professional tennis player Sloane Stephens and singer-songwriter Charli XCX shared their bucket lists on Instagram, with goals like "finding the perfect slice of pizza in New York City."
• To enter, Instagram users need to find the carmaker's profile (@MercedesBenzUSA), go to the Highlights section and take a screenshot of the bucket list template. Users fill in three dream activities and post the list to their Instagram account with the hashtag #AClassBucketListEntry and @MercedesBenzUSA. The deadline to enter is Nov. 9.

Insight:

Mercedes' bucket list promotion is a compelling way to engage users with a contest that lets entrants express their personalized interests in a bucket list, which can include activities like travel, attending live events or personal dares. By requiring contestants to post a bucket list on Instagram, the Mercedes campaign has a chance of going viral among a wider audience of people who feel compelled to share their dreams and ambitions online.

The campaign for the entry-level A-Class sedan is aimed at millennials who are buying fewer cars than older generations, but are more likely than older generations to seek out authentic experiences they can share on social media platforms. Instagram is the second-most popular social network among U.S. millennials with 43.3 million people in the demographic group expected to use the app this year. Facebook, which also owns Instagram, is the No. 1 social network among U.S. millennials with 58.5 million users, per eMarketer.

Mercedes has had an active year of social media promotions. Last month, the carmaker celebrated the 130th anniversary of the first long-distance drive with a short film on IGTV, marking the first cinematic production to be featured on the standalone video platform Instagram launched in June. The carmaker kicked off 2018 with a Super Bowl promotion that challenged mobile users to hold a finger on an image of a new car model for as long as possible. The promotion had technical difficulties, forcing the company to apologize to those who had registered for the game. Mercedes then converted the contest into a sweepstakes, with everyone who registered for the game automatically entered into a random drawing.