Mercedes Tweet Race Crosses the Finish Line, Winners Announced

The world's first Tweet-fueled race has come to an end managing to raise over $120,000 for charities. Moreover, winners Todd Sanders and co-driver John Pedersen, also known as Team S by the fans that fueled their drive with some 43,000 tweets over a three-day period, were awarded two all-new 2012 C-Klasse Coupes.

Team S drove an S400 HYBRID and was "coached" by Black Cards frontman Pete Wentz, and brought a donation of $45,000 from MBUSA and over $5,000 from their Tweeters/supporters to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

"This was an amazing experience for us," said Stephen Cannon, vice president of marketing for MBUSA. "We wanted to do a great Super Bowl ad that would lay the groundwork for the all-new models we're introducing this year.  At the same time, we knew we needed to build up a social media platform for models oriented to a younger buyer which we'll be introducing in the next two to three years. The Tweet Race was a strategic leap of faith in terms of not only allowing but encouraging people to engage with Mercedes-Benz on their own terms.  So we were thrilled to see the enthusiasm and creativity people brought to it. And, while the Race is over, we see this as just the beginning of an ongoing conversation through these digital channels."

"The Tweet Race was a great success for us not just because it engaged such a broad audience with a reach of nearly 11 million but also because it allowed us to experiment in very innovative ways," said Bob Lord, CEO of Razorfish, MBUSA's digital agency behind the concept. "The campaign was packed with industry firsts from both a creative and a technology perspective, and truly pushed the boundaries of what is possible in harnessing the social graph."