Stuttgart. The offerings of the Museum for both occasions are called “Experience the Museum from home”. For example, with a live digital tour on Instagram (mb4.me/MuseumTour). Because of the pandemic, the Mercedes-Benz Museum is closed at present.
A virtual tour through the Museum
Thanks to digital technologies, it can be explored from a distance at any time. Via the magazine-style website, for example, or by means of interactive tours around the Museum on Instagram or a drone flight on YouTube. The range of formats and content is steadily increasing as the Museum continues to expand its digital offerings.
Visitors can experience the Mercedes-Benz Museum online via the website before or after their visit, as they wish. The virtual tour guides visitors around the exhibition, which covers 16,500 square metres. The site offers information on all the exhibits as well as 360-degree images of all the Legend and Collection rooms with their vehicles (www.mercedes-benz.com/en/classic/museum/exhibition/). Special exhibitions from the past can also be experienced as a 3D tour, such as “40 Years of the Mercedes-Benz G-Class” (mb4.me/3D-Gclass) and “125 Years of VfB Stuttgart” (mb4.me/3D-VFB).
A highlight of this experience is a film taken from a drone that explores the Museum from the roof to the entrance level: the four-minute clip (mb4.me/drone-museum) delivers spectacular scenes, shot with the help of special highly agile camera drones. This includes the rapid flight through the open gullwing doors of the legendary Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Coupé. When it was released in spring 2020, the clip was viewed several million times in the first few days on YouTube and the social media channels of the Mercedes-Benz Museum.
Every visit to the Museum is an individual experience. A web series focuses on this perspective and provides guided tours with various celebrities (www.mercedes-benz.com/en/classic/museum/at-the-museum-with/). One of these is Jutta Benz who, as great-granddaughter of Carl Benz, the inventor of the car, and his wife, Bertha Benz, has a special relationship with the Museum. Or Bernd Mayländer, who has been driving the safety car in Formula One race meetings for twenty years. Dr Ulrike Groos, Director of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, gives her appraisal. Gorden Wagener, Chief Design Officer of Daimler AG, names his personal car favourites during the tour and Benedikt Weiler, curator of the Mercedes-Benz Museum, provides a peek behind the scenes.
Social media
With its mix of historical archive material, exciting pictures and videos from the Mercedes-Benz Museum and from worldwide classic events, the digital Mercedes-Benz Museum is the most successful classic channel of all car manufacturers worldwide. More than two million people follow @mercedesbenzmuseum on Instagram, in addition to followers on other platforms: @mercedesbenzmuseum on Facebook and @MB_Museum on Twitter.
On Instagram, guides from the Mercedes-Benz Museum share their enthusiasm and surprising facts about the permanent and special exhibitions. A virtual experience is made possible by the series “Exclusive Insights: The Cars of the Mercedes-Benz Museum” (mb4.me/exclusive-insights). Museum guide Pádraic Ó Leanacháin provides insights, explores some special vehicles such as the 500 K Special Roadster in Legend Room 3 and enjoys the holiday atmosphere in front of the Mercedes-Benz 300 TD in the Collection Room 1. Also available via Instagram Stories are Museum tours by Pádraic Ó Leanacháin (mb4.me/MuseumTour) and by Damian Dabrowski through the special exhibition “40 Years of the G-Class” (mb4.me/g-tour-ig).
Shmee150, the successful YouTuber, presents five little known facts about Mercedes-Benz and its predecessor brands in a 180-degree virtual reality format on his journey of discovery through the Museum: mb4.me/Top5. Viewers can look around the Museum themselves by using the mouse pointer or moving their smartphones.
And those who have ever played with the idea of acquiring their own Mercedes-Benz classic can try the entertaining “Mercedes-Benz Classic Quiz” (mb4.me/classic-quiz) and find out which vehicle is the best match.
