2015 Winners & Shortlists

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, but also follow throw with action Most importantly, for the idea to spread we needed to take the conversation outside of the automobile 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, alternatives.

How the final design was conceived

We chose to depict the #OnlyTheLonely world in a Scandinavian, minimalistic design to best convey our message. Taboo topics in Lebanon are often polarizing and by depicting social change through animation, the message suddenly became both fun and welcoming. We also wanted the viewer to feel that anyone could “walk with the lonely” with the use of “Mr. Lonely” as a the face of a campaign that people wanted to relate to. The TV spots immediately set Volvo apart from other car brand communication with a distinctive look and feel as even the Volvo car itself was animated.

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 the campaign’s completion.

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”.