Volvo Trucks’ online ad campaign for its new range not only received nine advertising awards from The One Show in New York – The Epic Split video (featuring actor Jean-Claude Van Damme) earned the sought-after prize in advertising – Best in Show.
The Epic Split was released in November 2013 and is the video in Volvo Trucks’ launch campaign that has had the greatest impact. After just 48 hours the video had 10 million views on YouTube.
Today it is the most watched automotive ad yet on YouTube, with more than 72 million views.
The day after its release The Epic Split was the most shared video in the world. The video took sixth place in YouTube’s annual list,‘Top Ten Trending Videos of 2013′.
Volvo Trucks says it’s live test online ad campaign swept The One Show, winning nine ‘Pencil’ awards including six golds. The Epic Split won the Best in Show prize against 21,000 entries submitted from around the world.
The live test campaign features six videos that demonstrate features in the new range of Volvo Trucks in a variety of ways. All told these films have been viewed more than 100 million times on YouTube.
Most of the awards were for The Epic Split, the viral video where Jean-Claude Van Damme does the splits between two new Volvo FM trucks driven in reverse. The live test campaign also received a Gold Pencil for the best consumer campaign in the advertising category.
” Surveys show that almost half the truck buyers who have seen the live test films indicate they would be more likely to choose a Volvo the next time they buy a new truck. For us this is another strong sign that the campaign has been successful,” says Volvo Trucks public relations director Nilsson.
Facts about the launch campaign
In total, six live test films were released as part of the campaign, in the following sequence: The Ballerina Stunt, The Technician, The Hook, The Hamster Stunt, The Chase and The Epic Split.
The videos demonstrate the innovative features of the new truck series in a spectacular way.
The videos have only been released on YouTube.
The ad campaign’s reach
From June 2012 to May 2014:
- The number of followers on Facebook has increased from 16,000 to 362,000.
- The number of followers on Twitter has increased from 6,000 to 19,000.
- On YouTube, the number of subscribers has increased from 3,500 to 92,000.
- The number of unique visits to Volvo Trucks’ websites in Europe has doubled from just over 175,000 to more than 300,000 per month.
- The videos have more than 100 million views on YouTube and have been shared nearly 8 million times.
- There have been over 20,000 reports about the videos in the media worldwide.
- It is estimated that this degree of publicity represents 126 million euros (172.6 million USD) in earned media value.
- When surveyed, almost half the truck buyers who have seen the launch videos say it is now more likely that they will choose Volvo the next time they purchase a truck.
