How does a brand known for boxy cars, put its new design strategy at the centre of the cultural conversation? How do you engage global influencers, when they feel indifferent towards your brand, describe your design as vanilla and rarely listen when you speak?

By taking away the logo and anything from the car that could identify it, we had a global audience look at Volvo’s bold new concept car without preconceptions.

One unbranded image, with the Volvo logo removed, was carefully placed in influencer media and online forums with a question: What the hell is this? The mystery image evoked amazing curiosity and quickly went viral. Aston Martin fans cheered what they hoped to be the new Aston. Audi and BMW fans did the same.

Two days later, in a teaser-video, we hid three single frames revealing further details of the mystery car, only visible if you paused the film at the right moment (Fight club!). Gradually new clues were unveiled and expectations were through the roof.

Speculation turned into cheering when the mystery car was presented as a new Volvo.

With The Unbranded Launch, Volvo engaged the whole world in a dialogue. The response was exceptional and people all around the world, who usually don’t even have Volvo on their radar, talked about the brand in a whole new way, firmly paving the way for a bold new design direction.

We created a single image of the car, in which we took away the logo and everything that could identify it as a Volvo. That single unbranded teaser image was placed in car and design forums and media – where people were asked to help identify the manufacturer.

Two days later we released a film introducing Volvo’s new Chief Designer. In the film, we hid three single frames revealing further details of the mystery car, only visible if you paused the film at the exact right moment.

We trusted viewers be intrigued by the unbranded image, find the frames and put one and one together. Gradually new clues were unveiled and speculation and anticipation turned into cheering when the mystery car was presented as a new Volvo.

Once the car was officially unveiled, the momentum built up by the PR-activities ensured engagement unparalleled by anything Volvo had ever seen before.

Consumer Engagement

•Social conversation about Volvo used to be 69 % neutral, this launch had 97 % Positive Sentiment (Meltwater),

•This launch made people, who are not traditionally Volvo fans, talk about Volvo in a whole new way. The engagement in social media was massive. with a total digital media reach exceeding 1,2 Billion impressions (Meltwater).

Publicity

• 20 out of 25 pre-defined global tier one non-automotive media covered the Volvo Concept Coupe.

• Most influential automotive media followed and covered the teaser launch with the unbranded images, the hidden frames and finally the full reveal of the car.

• 2700+ online articles, benchmarked towards a regular month when there are an estimated 450 articles about Volvo globally. (Meltwater).

• Key message & provided imagery was featured in close to all media coverage.