ObjectiveWith the start of the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009, Volvo gives us a seemingly impossible task: get the special edition cars in front of people who are not exclusively interested in sailing sports, yet still show the race and utilize its branding values. ConceptIn RUSH, you meet four members of a life rescue crew, who rush out to assist an Ocean Race boat at sea. They have four minutes to reach the lifeboat, driving in their Volvo Ocean Race Edition vehicles. Things go wrong and you need to help them out. From a split-screen overview showing each crew member's narrative, you can zoom in on any of the four members, controlling the narrative to try to make the team work. In these four to five minutes of adventure, you see twenty minutes worth of film and sound. You choose between alternative pathways that change the crew's communication and actions.Promotional PlanA film-like trailer is seeded into car-, sailing-, gaming-, and film communities. Dealer showrooms and the Volvo showroom in the Ocean Race villages display RUSH posters and feature terminals where visitors can play the adventure next to the cars. Volvo's own media (VolvoCars.com and VolvoOceanRace.org) carried banner and editorial advertising.

EXECUTION: A DIFFERENT KIND OF RACEWe created RUSH, an interactive adventure that uses the Ocean Race as a backdrop but focuses on events on shore. In RUSH, you meet four members of a life rescue crew who have four minutes to help an Ocean Race boat in distress. You control all of the crew members’ actions and ensure that they co-operate as a teamSince there was a limited media spending, we leveraged Volvo’s own channels online (volvocars.com, volvooceanrace.org) and offline (dealership showrooms, displays in the Volvo Ocean Race villages). In addition, we implemented an online seeding campaign to get people to visit the site and participate in the adventure.

EFFECT: 400,000 VISITORS400,000 visitors have already participated in the online adventure who, on average, spent 5:30 minutes with RUSH. We’re only halfway through the Volvo Ocean Race, and half of the available Volvo Ocean Race edition vehicles are already sold.