Lisbon is set to become the next Silicon Valley. That’s why Mercedes-Benz IO, the brand’s digital hub, decided to open its new office in the city. And like every new office, it needed to recruit new talent. A big challenge, considering that Lisbon can’t compete with the salaries and ambitions of Silicon Valley. That’s why we needed to offer something that could really inspire these talents, by creating something to attract new talents to join Mercedes-Benz IO.

We created the only job opportunity with a chair designed for its candidates. The Best Chair was launched to inspire new developers to join Mercedes-Benz IO in Lisbon. More than a job offer, we created something beyond ordinary, something that could inspire developers.

Each feature was designed to provide a better work experience, based on a developer’s working day. It’s possible to control and adjust the Best Chair to fit different working day routines, using a smartphone connected with the chair.

In order to recruit new developers around the world to join Mercedes-Benz IO in Lisbon, we choose Web Summit, the largest technology event in Europe, to do so. A whole week full of people seeking new opportunities and ideas to inspire their careers. The perfect place to launch a new product with top-notch features to attract developers: The Best Chair.

Created from scratch, The Best Chair took about 3 months to be ready. The chair was launched during the largest technology event in Europe, the Web Summit. Using the event as media, we placed the chair inside the Mercedes-Benz’ boof to draw attention to every Web Summit visitor.

The idea has been able to inspire 30 times more developers than the number of job positions available at Mercedes-Benz IO. The Best Chair project was a success and is already being implemented for the Mercedes-Benz IO offices in Stuttgart and Berlin.