Brand ARTivation

It was in 2008 that Swedish automaker Volvo had first introduced its City Safety System, with the intent to increase the safety of the drivers and the pedestrians and avoid any accidents. It has been almost a decade and the brand has stood strong on its safety;so much so that it has been awarded the Safest Car of the World award. Volvo is considered as the safest car ever made, though Tesla is slowly taking over because of its top-notch intelligence systems.

To underline the brand’s commitment to safety, Volvo has released a campaign in line with the launch of the new XC60. Titled ‘Moments’, the campaign talks about the glorious events one experiences in life. It also underlines a major flipside; which are the unexpected things that can occur, avoiding which matters the most. The three-minute film by Forsman&Bodenfors is all about a little girl and the moments in her life that are yet to happen.

The ad revolves around the girl’s conversation with her mother on the first day of her school. It shows how the mother pours in confidence into the nervous girl and tells her that she is in control of her life and that she is the one who decides what happens.

And as the confident girl leaves from home, the ad takes us through the various moments of the little girl’s life, right from her imagination, from making new friends to travelling and exploring, finding the love of her life. As a parallel narrative, the ad shows a woman hurriedly driving through the city in her Volvo XC60.

The two parallel narrations collide when the little girl crosses path with the woman. But thanks to the safety system of Volvo, the car stops automatically, preventing a horrible collision. The ad concludes with the super – Sometimes the moments that never happen, matter the most.

Hang on, keep your seat belts on, the campaign is not just this brilliantly directed and edited ad, there is more. Volvo also connected people to the very important life-changing and life-saving technology through moments captured by award-winning photo journalist Barbara Davidson. As part of the activation strategy, Volvo invited Barbara to capture moments of life through the eyes of the XC60’s security camera located on the car’s front windshield.

Barbara’s photo exhibition with XC60 was not only the first to be shot with a car but also a breakthrough in storytelling. Premiered at the London Canvas Studio on the fourth of July, the photo exhibition was curated by picking screenshots from the video that was recording the footage, while Barbara was framing the scene.

Who had imagined that a car’s safety feature could be explored as an untapped artistic potential and compiled into an art exhibition that educates people of a life-saving technology? This is phenomenal brand activation. Never was a product safety feature so beautifully and intelligently put to work as a campaign activator.