On February 1st 2015, the day of the Super Bowl, an interception was set to happen. The Volvo Interception. On the biggest marketing day of the year in America, Volvo decided not to pay millions for a commercial, but to think outside of the box.
Volvo proposed that whenever ANY car commercial aired throughout the game, people should tweet #VolvoContest for a chance to win one of five new XC60 Crossovers – each tweet would gain a response from Volvo as the next step was to explain why the chosen people deserved to win.
What some have described as lazy and cheap marketing, we think is clever, innovative and a fresh marketing technique that has allowed Volvo to use other brands’ efforts to benefit their own for a fraction of the price the rest have invested.
Source [http://www.autonews.com/article/20150206/BLOG06/150209876/no-big-bucks-for-a-super-bowl-ad?-no-problem]
Whilst Mercedes, BMW, VW, Ford and other big automotive brands were spending millions of dollars on commercials to grab Super Bowl watchers’ attention through the big game, all Volvo had to do was get word around about their Twitter contest and they would reap the benefits of the millions spent by other brands. Social conversation swiftly shifted to focus on Volvo whilst the big bucks commercials faded into the background.
#VolvoContest shone a light on both Volvo’s new model and their innovative marketing ideas, a previous lack of awareness within one of their biggest markets is no more as the US couldn’t help but discover Volvo during the interception. Allowing them to put their cars in the possession of those who deserve them most and to also show consumers what Volvo is all about, the interception ticked multiple goals off Volvo’s list.
So how did they do it? By planting teaser videos across online video and their owned social media channels, engaging brand loyalists and a PR buzz including and integration with The Jimmy Kimmel Live Show – that’s how. All communications were driven towards a landing page optimised for mobile which kept consumers in the loop with when the right time to tweet was.
Okay, so what are the results? An astonishing 50k tweets in 4 hours and 200 million earned media impressions! So whether you thought it was stingey, lazy or even a bit cheeky, the interception of #VolvoContest worked and 5 deserving, inspirational individuals won a new car because somebody thought that they deserved it. Win win, right?
Vovlo’s use of innovative thinking highlights the growing power of social media as a primary marketing channel, especially for brands seeking the opportunity to engage in Guerrilla Marketing
You can watch the interception unfold here and read about it from the team responsible, Grey Group, here.
We will be bringing you more info on our favourite marketing efforts soon!
