2015 Winners & Shortlists

A STAND FOR THE LONELY

BrandVOLVO
Product/ServiceAUTOMOTIVE
EntrantINTERESTING TIMES Beirut, LEBANON
CategoryEnvironmental Design
Entrant Company INTERESTING TIMES Beirut, LEBANON
Advertising Agency INTERESTING TIMES Beirut, LEBANON

Brief Explanation

We set out to change the users association from “dull” to relevant, cool and to a brand for individuals who had nothing to prove. -We set out to position the brand as the “Luxury car of the thinking society” -We wanted to challenge the status quo that purchase an automobile simply for its “name” rather than its features -To stay true to the Volvo brand the campaign needed to not only talk the talk; but also walk the walk. Most importantly, for the idea to spread we needed to take the conversation outside of the category and into consumer culture.

The Brief

In Lebanon Volvo is seen as a dependable make, but dull compared to flashy German competitors like BMW, Mercedes and Audi who dominate 80% of the luxury market. This led to a decrease in traffic to the Volvo showroom. Volvo acknowledged that it did not want be a mass brand, but rather wanted to align with a positive user association that would help fight the herd behaviour of buying flashy German cars without considering other, advantageous, and alternatives.

How the final design was conceived

In Lebanon doing the wrong thing is the norm-especially on the road. Our social experiment set out to find out how many people wanted change. People took part by interacting with our installations. The experiment was based on simple actions like hailing a taxi from a designated stand or using a zebra crossing. The stands were equipped with Internet, cameras and solar panels. Once someone activated the stand by pressing a button, the campaign’s theme, “Mr. Lonely”, would play and the camera would capture the action in a social media friendly 15-second clip which was uploaded to the website.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Bloggers and news outlets praised the initiative and called for countrywide implementation. Lebanese NGO “Live-Love-Beirut” used the campaign as a public petition to change people’s behavior and celebrities took part. OnlyTheLonely.me generated 113,142 sessions and 72,432 users. 29.8% of the traffic came from referrals, while 22% came directly. Paid leads accounted for 41.4% of visits. More than 1,700 videos were shared from the stands, reaching 137,083 English language Facebook users (12% of the English language target demographic). 4,390 pedestrians used the stands. And most importantly, showroom traffic not only increased by 10-fold, but maintained its growth after.

One of the key brand values of Volvo is its Scandinavian design mantra of "form follows function". This is also directly related to our audience who demanded value from products and services and chose to stray away from the Lebanese herd purchasing. The brand needed to bring this out in a fresh and interesting way. We wanted to prove to those who demanded more value that functionality is modern, continuously innovative, and relevant. We also wanted to show that Volvo is a brand than understands the needs of people and communities...it is "designed around you”.

Credits

Name Company Role
Mo Alghossein Interesting Times Creative Director/Partner
Jimmy Francis Interesting Times Creative Director/Partner
Wassim Bassil Interesting Times Managing Partner
Ashraf Mansour Interesting Times Strategy Director/Partner
Rita Harbie Interesting Times Copywriter
Michiel Sfeir Art Director
Marta Bielik Interesting Times Senior Planner
Jihad Harmoush Interesting Times Engagement Manager
Bahaa Awad Interesting Times Digital Production Director
Elie Chbib Interesting Times Production Manager
Karam Al Ghossein Interesting Times Senior Content Producer
Lara Safar Interesting Times Head Of Engagement