The XC60 launch symbolized a steep transformation for Volvo, so we positioned the brand front and center of an epic cultural moment.

On August 21st, a solar eclipse blocked the sun’s light and cast a complete shadow across the US. An event of such power, we can do little but watch and be humbled by the forces of the universe. Few people will ever witness a celestial event of this magnitude.

But we’re not the ones who simply witness. We are the ones who race the sun.

That’s why Volvo sent four XC60’s to chase the eclipse. With a powerful engine, incredible precision control, and panoramic moonroof, the XC60 is the perfect precision instrument to chase the shadow. Behind the wheel, four expert hosts followed the fading light. Armed with a 4K 360º camera rig, this cosmic event of our generation was shared in real time with the entire world.

To bring the eclipse to the world, we built four 4K 360º cameras and rigs, installed them on XC60s positioned in four U.S. locations. Each vehicle was equipped with cameras on both the interior and exterior, allowing inside and outside shots to be stitched together. The 4K VR live stream was linked via satellite to the CNN network, Facebook and Oculus, and streamed globally with less than 1 second of delay.

Four experts were brought on to cover the eclipse, including an astronaut, a world explorer, a bestselling science fiction author, and an expert on ancient cultures (and the cosmological influence on them). Prior to the eclipse, a custom landing page on both the Volvo site as well as CNN was created with a countdown clock and lead-up videos.

With four separate branded content live streams, viewers could watch the eclipse four separate times as it crossed the country.

On the day of the eclipse, our live VR video on CNN had 24 million video starts, making it the most watched live VR experience in history and setting a world record verified by Guinness. It was also the second highest day in 2017 for both unique visitors and video starts on our network, behind only Obama’s Presidential Inauguration.

In terms of brand lift for Volvo, the campaign created more than 1.03 billion earned media impressions and over 164 pieces of coverage from tech and auto publications such as GQ, Quartz, The Washington Post, Adweek, The Atlantic, and Newsweek. And in a survey conducted after the campaign 72% of respondents said they prefer the live ad experience to a standard digital video ad experience.