Volvo LifeSaver is a concept that was not built on a brief, but on the mere thought that safety is more than brakes, three-point safety-belts or parking sensors. We asked ourselves the simple question: how can we proof Volvo’s safety claim once again? How can we make safety tangible in this data driven world? And finally: what is the ultimate form of safety?

These questions led to the obvious answer: it is all about saving lives. A pure, strategic starting point.

There was no brief. There were no objectives.

But there was a harrowing situation: in the Netherlands annually 17.000 people suffer from cardiac arrest. The first 6 minutes are crucial for survival. But ambulances take on average 9 minutes to reach the victims. Each minute we could steal from that 9 minutes could possibly save a life. That became our ambitious goal.

There was no brief, there was no brand’s challenge nor objective. There was, however, a brand promise: no one is killed by accident in or around a Volvo. A strong promise in the automotive category. A tempting promise for an ambitious agency. We took the challenge on and succeeded in proving the brand’s promise. LifeSaver saved lives.

In the Netherlands annually 17.000 people suffer from cardiac arrest. The first 6 minutes are crucial for survival. But ambulances take on average 9 minutes to reach victims. And there aren’t enough AED’s around to compensate, especially not in rural areas. Volvo equals safety. We equipped Volvo’s with an AED, connected them to the national emergency desk and via Volvo On Call drivers navigated to a victim and offered help. It made a difference. In a few months’ time over ten people were resuscitated with help of a Volvo AED.

Volvo equals safety. Inside and around the car. But why stop there when we saw such a wonderful possibility to help people who were having a cardiac arrest? Together with the Volvo team we decided to equip Volvo drivers with AED’s, train them and connect their Volvos to the national call system for resuscitation. The Volvo drivers are registered as civilian first responders. Emergency calls are automatically sent to the car via Volvo On Call. The driver can navigate directly to the victim, saving possible valuable minutes.

With an estimated reach of 16,000,000+ impressions, the project generated national interest for the current problem of response time for cardiac arrest victims and stirred up public debate in social- and mass media, including national and international newspapers and news services.

And perhaps more importantly, the program is saving real lives with 25 drivers trained and enlisted as civilian first responders and over 200 more lined up to do the same – a number that has already exceeded our expectations by nearly a 1000%. The Volvo LifeSaver program is now a program that Volvo will keep supporting, continuing to use Volvo cars and their drivers as an extension of the brand’s tangible promise to keep everyone safe.