Mercedes-Benz podcasting? Yes, you heard it here first. The German lux car creators have partnered with Chinese podcasting platform Xiaoyuzhou (小宇宙) to launch ‘On the Road Together, Insight into the World‘, a new content series recorded in an unlikely environment: the back of a moving car.
The concept is simple: instead of a conventional studio, a Mercedes-Benz V-Class serves as the location for deep-dive conversations between hosts and guests, who reflect on business, life and inspiration.
From Mercedes-Benz’s perspective, it’s a chance to sell the image of their cars as the height of luxury. What kind of car is so quiet and comfortable you could turn it into a recording studio?
For Xiaoyuzhou, the project explores how podcasting can move out of headphones and into physical, mobile spaces and ties into a theme they’re very in to, listening on the go. It also plays into another theme for them, which is collaboration with notable luxury brands. Louis Vuitton put their name to a podcast about two years ago, and more recently both Prada and Tiffany & Co. have also taken to Xiaoyuzhou’s airwaves. Mercedes-Benz is a nice name to add to that list.
China’s podcast scene is still relatively young but growing fast, especially among urban professionals who crave something quieter than short-video noise. Xiaoyuzhou, launched in 2020, has carved out that niche by curating long-form, reflective conversations – a sort of antidote to doom-scrolling.
The key to a good collaboration is that both brands align. That’s very much the case here. With its track record of luxury collaborations, Xiaoyuzhou is hitting the right notes with its user-base of young professionals. Mercedes-Benz aids this ambition neatly by being both aspirational and a place where this userbase is likely to listen to a podcast. Ultimately, both brands are in the business of movement, Mercedes physically, Xiaoyuzhou mentally.
