Mercedes-Benz Trucks’ claim is “trucks you can trust”. Trucks which are always reliable in the hurly-burly of building-site work. At the BAUMA in April 2010, this brand promise took tangible form on more than 1000 m²: six Mercedes trucks were to be displayed on the stand in their natural habitat, the building-site.

Expected was: a clever idea to display the products in the building-site context positively, without becoming trite and stating the obvious, i.e. details like barrier-tape, sand-heaps, boards and steel matting.So? How to stage the building-site topic à la Mercedes - high-quality, noble, intelligent, not trite?

The design was based on a simple idea, immediately understood by visitors from the trade: the fair-stand is a full-size site layout plan. Logistics companies develop such plans for every site displaying tips, temporary roads, etc..

So the fair-stand was transformed into a complex abstract building-site, the ideal framework for the products. The positioning of the vehicles was related to their characteristics (heavy ground, concrete floors, etc.) and the (humourous) speech balloons communicated the vehicles’ benefits.The vehicles’ unusual champagne colour-scheme contrasted with the abstract stand design and recalled Mercedes-Benz’s claim to provide premium quality.

A simple idea, implemented consistently, created a fair-stand which coherently combined down-to-earth authenticity and premium atmosphere. Trucks presented à la Mercedes.

The stand design was the talk of the fair, it noticeably increased the visitors' average length of stay and had a high PR impact.