MOMENTS FT. BARBARA DAVIDSON

TitleMOMENTS FT. BARBARA DAVIDSON
BrandVOLVO CARS
Product/ServiceTHE NEW VOLVO XC60
Category B08. Events & Stunts
Entrant FORSMAN & BODENFORS Gothenburg, SWEDEN
Idea Creation FORSMAN & BODENFORS Gothenburg, SWEDEN
Media Placement MINDSHARE Gothenburg, SWEDEN
PR FORSMAN & BODENFORS Gothenburg, SWEDEN
Production BAD LAND Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production 2 CHIMNEY Gothenburg, SWEDEN
Credits
Name Company Position
Andreas Malm Forsman & Bodenfors Art Director
Karl Risenfors Forsman & Bodenfors Art Director
Gustav Johansson Forsman & Bodenfors Copywriter
Anders Bothén Forsman & Bodenfors Account Supervisor
Ewa Edlund Forsman & Bodenfors Account Executive
Bjarne Darwall Forsman & Bodenfors PR Strategist
Martin Joelsson Forsman & Bodenfors Designer
Natanael Ericsson Bad Land Director
Olle Kirchmeier Bad Land Director Of Photography
Sophie Tamm Christensen Bad Land Executive Producer
Adam Holmström Bad Land Producer
Petter Winnberg Universal Composer

The Campaign

With the rise of autonomous driving, safety is once again one of the hottest topics in the automotive world. In 2008, Volvo launched its first City Safety system, that can assist the driver and break automatically. The New Volvo XC60 is equipped with the latest update and is capable of detecting pedestrians, cyclists, other cars and even large animals, thanks to the advanced built- in camera. To celebrate the people the system is designed to protect and raise awareness of this tehcnology, we put the new XC60 in the hands of Pulitzer price-winning photographer Barbara Davidson, letting her capture moments of life by only using the car as her camera.

Execution

The shoot took place in Copenhagen and featured journalists on set, covering the story and production under embargo till the launch event. Prior to the event, exclusive interviews with Barbara were given to selected top tier media in Europe and in the U.S. On the day of the event – the 4th of July - 20 selected lifestyle journalists from different European countries met with Barbara Davidson and Volvo spokespersons in London for indepth interviews. Even more journalists and influencers attended the photo exhibition event at London’s Canvas Studios in the evening. The morning after the event, a global PR outreach was carried out, using both broader and targeted distribution channels, aiming for broader entertainment and news verticals, as well as photography, tech, design, art and automotive media. Finally, the photo exhibition is still on tour and rendering additional local and national media coverage.

- The campaign resulted in media coverage in 42 countries all over the world. - The campaign resulted in 348 articles (132% above target) - The precentage of articles in ”non-automotive” media was 86% (72% above target) - The reach was 196 million (145% above target) - The AVE was 1,8 million USD (80% above target)

The Situation

With the rise of autonomous driving, safety is one of the hottest topics in the automotive world. In 2008, Volvo launched its’ first City Safety system, that assists the driver and breaks automatically. The New Volvo XC60 features the latest update and is capable of detecting pedestrians, cyclists, other cars and even large animals, thanks to the advanced built-in camera. To celebrate the people the system is designed to protect and raise awareness of this tehcnology, we put the new XC60 in the hands of Pulitzer price-winning photographer Barbara Davidson, creating the world’s first photo exhibition shot with a car.

The Strategy

Volvos semi-autonomous City Safety system has been around since 2008. But most people – except for car nerds – are unaware of it. We wanted to promote it in a way that reached beyond car media and into popular culture to reach the general public. And in order to achieve that we had to make something accessible and culturally relevant. The PR strategy was to early address top tier media within the lifestyle, tech and photography verticals with exclusive access to the story, followed by broader outreaches after the launch event, together with the PR film.