In 2009, cyclone Aila hit the Sundarbans, a vast river delta in between India and Bangladesh. The cyclone destroyed the old mud walls protecting the islands. People lost everything they owned in the floods and were trying to build mud walls by hand to protect against the next storm. An almost impossible task. In addition, salt water from the sea destroyed the fertile soil and made access to fresh water in the area limited.

In an attempt to save this valuable land from future cyclones and rising sea levels, Volvo CE machines are building new, concrete embankments, strong enough to stand against extreme weather.

The embankments in Sundarbans will not only protect the land from flooding. By keeping the salt water out, they will also help preserve fresh water in the area, ensuring prosperous harvests. The concrete embankments will also serve as roads, a well-needed contribution in this remote area.

Volvo CE chose to highlight this pioneer construction project through two parallel campaigns – one branded content story in collaboration with a very well-known publisher worldwide and one content package for the Megaproject Listing Series, published in all of Volvo CE’s channels (print and digital). While the branded content piece focused on telling the overall story in a 1-minute short film, The Megaproject Listing content package took the story further – giving the in-depth information of this spectacular project.

The Megaproject Listing is an ongoing content concept describing the world’s most innovative construction projects, using video material to create attention. The strategic focus lay in the emotional communication of a complex subject matter to showcase the building of a future world. Distribution is made via social channels, thus driving traffic to volvoce.com, growing Volvo CE’s online audience and positioning Volvo CE as a thought leader within the construction category. The Megaproject content is also featured in the brand’s magazine Spirit, bringing to life Volvo CE’s vision of building tomorrow.

The versatile concept also uses multiple angles and stories to target Volvo CE’s three main target groups: society, operators and decision makers. In effect it allows Volvo CE to drive deep creative insights into a variety of cultural backdrops and has turned the company’s communication from 'yellow machines in backlight' to drivers of societal change.

All in all, the stories from Sundarbans resulted in four short films and four short clips, four articles and several social media posts, published online on the content hub, across all Volvo CE’s social media channels and in Volvo CE’s printed magazine. The Sundarbans content package was published 21st of February, and the social media campaign ran until April 21st. The main target group was people interested in: construction or related, Volvo CE competitors worldwide, people with an interest in sustainability and those who had engaged with previous Megaproject campaigns.

Main KPI’s for this campaign were brand awareness, reach and video views as well as further positioning Volvo CE as a thought leader within the construction industry.

Two thirds into the campaign (final date in social media April 21st), the content had over 16 million impressions, and 8 million in reach on Facebook and Instagram. The estimated 3 sec views was 2.8 million, but 2/3 into the campaign it had already reached 3.9 million, an over delivery of 37%. The video completion rate for Facebook and Instagram was on 14% and for YouTube it was on 11%, showing that there is a real interest in these kind of questions among Volvo CE’s audience.

The branded content part of the campaign, generated 87,669 unique visitors on the website. The impressions for the branded content display was on 8.4 million, an over delivery of 10%