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Bertha Benz: The Journey That Changed Everything is a four-minute brand film produced by Mercedes-Benz and Berlin agency antoni garage, released on 8 March 2019 to mark International Women's Day, dramatising Bertha Benz's 1888 long-distance drive of the Benz Patent-Motorwagen from Mannheim to Pforzheim as an act of entrepreneurial courage that shaped the modern automotive industry.
The film reconstructs one of the most consequential but least-celebrated moments in automotive history. In 1888, Bertha Benz — wife and business partner of Carl Benz — took the Patent-Motorwagen on an unannounced journey from Mannheim to Pforzheim with her sons Eugen and Richard, covering approximately 106 kilometres, according to adsoftheworld.com. The drive, undertaken without Carl Benz's prior approval, is widely recognised as the first long-distance automobile trip, per En Wikipedia. It proved the vehicle's commercial viability at a moment when its future was uncertain.
Mercedes-Benz AG and Daimler AG commissioned the film through their dedicated agency partner, antoni garage, founded in Berlin in 2015 specifically for Mercedes-Benz work, according to campaignlive.co.uk. The production was executed by Anorak Film, Berlin, with service production handled by Icon Films in Bucharest, as documented by shots.net. Post-production responsibilities were shared between The Mill in London and Slaughterhouse in Berlin, per The One Club. The completed film was released on YouTube on 8 March 2019, timed precisely to International Women's Day. In Germany, where the original journey took place and where Mercedes-Benz remains headquartered, the campaign carried particular cultural weight, connecting a global automotive brand to a founding national narrative while also speaking to a contemporary conversation about women's agency and recognition. Clapboard rates the campaign 86 out of 100.
Mercedes-Benz occupies a singular position in the German automotive landscape. The brand reported 2,339,562 vehicles delivered in 2019, up 1.3 percent from 2018, according to best-selling-cars.com, placing it ahead of BMW, which reported 2,168,516 deliveries that same year, and Audi, which recorded 1,845,550 deliveries, both figures per best-selling-cars.com. In a market where Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi compete across near-identical premium positioning, emotional and historical differentiation carries strategic premium that specification-led advertising cannot replicate.
The strategic insight behind The Journey That Changed Everything is straightforward and historically grounded. Bertha Benz was not a peripheral figure in the founding of the automobile — she was a co-investor, a technical problem-solver during the 1888 journey, and the person whose long-distance drive generated the public proof that persuaded buyers the vehicle worked. Yet automotive brand narratives have historically centred on male inventors. Antoni garage identified that correcting this omission on International Women's Day 2019 would position Mercedes-Benz as a brand capable of holding both heritage and contemporary relevance simultaneously.
Automotive advertising investment provided further context for the strategic ambition. Global automotive advertising expenditure totalled US$35.5 billion in 2018, according to Zenith Media, with television representing a dominant 54.5 percent of that spending compared with 32.9 percent across all categories, also per Zenith Media. Zenith forecast automotive advertising growth of just 0.8 percent in 2019, suggesting a competitive environment where budget efficiency and earned attention — the kind a culturally resonant film generates — carried increasing strategic logic. In Germany specifically, the automotive sector remains the economic and cultural backbone of national industry, making a campaign that celebrates German automotive origins more than a brand gesture — it is a statement of institutional identity.
Director Sebastian Strasser leads the creative execution of The Journey That Changed Everything, working through production company Anorak Film in Berlin, as credited by shots.net and oneclub.org. Creative director Alice Bottaro of antoni garage shaped the campaign's overall creative vision, per thecreativesroom.com. The production drew on service infrastructure from Icon Films in Bucharest to recreate late 19th-century German landscapes and period-accurate environmental detail, with executive producers Christoph Petzenhauser and Alex Molea overseeing production logistics, according to oneclub.org.
The film's construction is deliberately cinematic rather than promotional. The four-minute runtime is itself a statement — it refuses the compression of a conventional automotive advertisement and demands instead the attention a short film commands. Strasser and the production team reconstruct the Mannheim-to-Pforzheim route as a journey of escalating physical and emotional stakes, with Bertha navigating mechanical problems, social scepticism and unfamiliar terrain. The period production design, costume and cinematography — recognised with a Silver Cube for Craft in Video and Cinematography at the ADC Annual Awards 2020, per oneclub.org — create an immersive historical environment without the archival distance that can make period content feel museum-like.
Original music plays a further structural role. The One Show awarded the campaign a Merit in Use of Music for Original Music in 2020, according to oneclub.org, indicating that the score functions as dramatic architecture rather than atmospheric decoration. Post-production by The Mill in London and Slaughterhouse in Berlin, documented by oneclub.org, provided the visual finishing that sustains the film's period coherence across its full runtime. The result, as described by The Drum, reads as a historical and brand-building tribute that earns its emotional weight through craft rather than sentiment. In Germany, where the landscape and the history are lived cultural memory, the visual specificity of the film carries added resonance.
No verified commercial performance data for Bertha Benz: The Journey That Changed Everything is publicly available. The campaign's effectiveness is, however, documented through a significant awards record across the industry's most rigorous creative juries. At Cannes Lions 2019, the film received one Silver Lion, two Bronze Lions and one shortlist, per Entri App. D&AD 2019 shortlisted the campaign in Branded Content and Entertainment, Fiction Film up to Five Minutes, according to dandad.org. The One Show awarded the campaign a Merit in Use of Music for Original Music in 2020, per oneclub.org. The ADC Annual Awards 2020 recognised the film with a Silver Cube for Craft in Video and Cinematography, also per oneclub.org.
Structurally, the campaign deploys several mechanisms that support effectiveness beyond awards recognition. Releasing the film on International Women's Day on 8 March 2019 gave it a culturally guaranteed earned-media window, concentrating editorial and social attention at the moment of maximum audience receptivity to stories about women's contributions. The four-minute format signals investment and seriousness, communicating brand confidence to audiences conditioned to expect thirty-second automotive content. Anchoring the narrative to Germany — the country where the 1888 journey physically took place and where Mercedes-Benz retains its industrial and cultural identity — grounds a global brand in a specific, verifiable and emotionally coherent origin story. The campaign earns a Clapboard Score of 86 out of 100, reflecting the strength of its creative craft, its strategic clarity and the consistency between its historical subject and its contemporary context.
Bertha Benz: The Journey That Changed Everything is a four-minute brand film by Mercedes-Benz and berlin agency Antoni garage. Released on International Women's Day, 8 March 2019, it dramatises Bertha Benz's 1888 drive from Mannheim to Pforzheim — approximately 106 kilometres — recognised as the first long-distance automobile journey, per adsoftheworld.com.
Sebastian Strasser directed the film through Anorak Film, Berlin. Antoni garage, the Berlin agency founded in 2015 specifically for Mercedes-Benz, led the creative work, with creative director Alice Bottaro shaping the campaign's vision, according to thecreativesroom.com and shots.net. Post-production was handled by The Mill, London, and Slaughterhouse, Berlin.
At Cannes Lions 2019, the campaign received one Silver Lion, two Bronze Lions and one shortlist, per entri.app. It also earned a D&AD 2019 shortlist in Branded Content and Entertainment, two ADC Annual Awards 2020 Silver Cubes, and a One Show 2020 Merit for original music, all per oneclub.org and dandad.org.
Mercedes-Benz released the film on 8 March 2019 to align Bertha Benz's historically overlooked contribution to automotive history with International Women's Day. The strategic intent, executed by Antoni garage, was to correct the male-centred automotive origin narrative while connecting the brand to a contemporary conversation about women's agency and recognition.
Mercedes-Benz reported 2,339,562 vehicle deliveries in 2019, ahead of BMW's 2,168,516 and Audi's 1,845,550, per best-selling-cars.com. In Germany's premium automotive market, where specification parity is high, the Bertha Benz film pursues emotional and historical differentiation that neither BMW nor Audi can replicate from the same founding narrative.
Bertha Benz drove the Benz Patent-Motorwagen from Mannheim to Pforzheim in 1888 — approximately 106 kilometres — without Carl Benz's prior approval, per en.wikipedia.org. The journey proved the vehicle's commercial viability and is widely recognised as the first long-distance automobile trip, making Bertha a foundational figure in Mercedes-Benz's own origin story.
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