Cologne, January 2011 — As its first PR event in 2011, Oliver Schrott Kommu­nika­tion real­ized the most lavish film produc­tion in the agency’s history: at the tradi­tional Mercedes-Benz New Year recep­tion on the evening before the North Amer­ican Inter­na­tional Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, a 360° wrap-around video show caused an unusual stir among the 300 invited jour­nal­ists and got their feet tapping.

The film “Road Trip” showed ten impas­sioned Mercedes drivers from seven coun­tries who permitted the camera a brief, authentic glimpse into their lives. From a Norwe­gian fish­erman on the ice to a busi­nessman in New York and finally to a Chinese couple visiting a temple: alongside their shared love for their cars, the ten drivers were united by the song “Fallin’ For You” by Colbie Caillat, which connected the various scenes in the film and was performed live in Detroit by the Grammy winner herself.

The produc­tion of “Road Trip” involved not only three camera teams in seven coun­tries. OSK’s film-making profes­sionals had to employ some partic­u­larly sophis­ti­cated methods in order to allow the 360° LED surface to achieve its full effect. Three cameras equipped with 14-millimetre wide-angle lenses and bolted onto a board were fitted on the rear bench seat of the vehi­cles. For every scene this produced indi­vidual shots from three angles which were merged into a panoramic view by means of special algo­rithms. Subse­quently, the OSK special­ists merged the indi­vidual scenes in the agency’s own cutting room, adding the back­ground music.

For Mercedes-Benz, this event on the evening before the most impor­tant auto­mo­bile exhi­bi­tion on the Amer­ican conti­nent not only repre­sented the prelude to the world premiere of the new C Class, it also marked the start of the company’s cele­bra­tion of this year as “125! years of inno­va­tion”. Both topics also domi­nated the big MB press confer­ence at the show on the following day, which was also planned and imple­mented by OSK.