Mercedes-Benz signs official partnership with Augusta Masters

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

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Two exceptional sports legends join forces
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New SL in the focus of communication

The automotive premium brand is crowning its golf activities with its commitment to the world�s most famous tournament, the Masters in Augusta, Georgia. Communication focuses on the new SL and its ancestor, the 300 SL Gullwing.
"We see this partnership not only as an outstanding platform for our brand but also as a great honor," says Dr. Olaf G�ttgens, Vice President Brand Communications Mercedes-Benz Cars. �The Masters and Augusta National Golf Club have a legendary aura - which is why we equally focus on a legend in communication: the Mercedes-Benz SL.� What the two have in common is not only a storied history and the principle of always seeing a long-standing tradition as a stimulus for new top-class achievements, but also the goal of promoting golf and its worldwide popularity. Mercedes-Benz will be associated with the Masters new international initiative that utilizes the Tournament's positive brand recognition to grow the game of golf.
The Green Jacket, which is presented to Masters winner, and the letters SL have been unparalleled in their symbolic power throughout the world. For the winner of the Masters, the Green Jacket is combined awith life-long privilege to play in subsequent tournaments. The SL, often referred to as the �Silver Arrow for the sporty driver�, gives an exclusive circle of drivers anywhere in the world access to a special kind of automotive fascination. More than 700,000 SL models have been sold on a global scale since 1954. The circle of SL aficionados is particularly large in the USA. In recent years, US customers accounted for some 50 percent of cars supplied - and this additionally underscores the significance of the partnership with the Masters in the State of Georgia.
In addition to an exclusive transport service for golfers and guests in Augusta, the new SL and its ancestors play a major role in the communication activities accompanying the Masters. At the Mercedes-Benz Brand Centers in Berlin, Paris, London and Singapore and the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, special displays of the new model and the historic SL will draw attention to the tournament. Eighteen symbolic holes in the exhibition walls tell the story of the famous golf course in Augusta and outline the parameters of the holes. In addition, Mercedes-Benz is planning to set up public viewing areas at the exhibition locations during the tournament from April 7 until 13. An advertising motif showing the SL 300 Gullwing and the Green Jacket under the slogan �The alliance of living legends�, which Mercedes-Benz will place in golf journals throughout the world at the beginning of the asscociation, can also be seen at the Geneva Motor Show.
Mercedes-Benz�s commitment to golf began 1990 when the company was title sponsor and partner of Erwin and Bernhard Langer in the Mercedes German Masters, the first professional golf tournament in Germany. Since 2007, the brand has been title sponsor of the Mercedes-Benz Championship in Pulheim near Cologne, the German venue on the European Tour. In the USA, Mercedes-Benz has been title sponsor of what used to be the Tournament of Champions from 1994 before it was renamed Mercedes-Benz Championship in 2000 and has since been staged at the beginning of each season in Kapalua/Hawaii.
The activities of Mercedes-Benz in amateur golf go back to 1988. The MercedesTrophy is a dedicated series of tournaments for amateurs � more than 50,000 players every year have been participating in 50 countries in the 20 years since the tournament�s inception. The aim of the participants is to reach the world final in which the best individual player and the best team are crowned in Stuttgart, at the cradle of the automobile. Because golf is becoming ever more popular in many countries and a growing number of Mercedes-Benz customers are playing golf, the tournament series will be expanded to include Japan and North Africa in 2008. Other new markets in East Europe and Asia will follow. �In our customers� emotional leisure-time setting, golf gives us the opportunity to directly address important target groups which we wouldn�t reach with football or motor sport to the same extent�, says Dr. Olaf G�ttgens.
Mercedes-Benz sees itself as a partner of sports. Alongside Formula One and the German Touring Car Masters, great significance is attached to the partnership with the German Football Association, which has been in existence for as many as 35 years. The premium brand�s long-standing commitment to equestrianism, support as the official Olympic partner in Germany, partnership with the ATP in tennis and sporting and social activities in the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation also underline the brand�s approach.