We needed to create excitement and buzz around a brand with very low awareness in the U.S., and stand out in a competitive category where we were being outspent. Even more challenging, the idea would only work on a large stage, so we chose to do this during the biggest media event of the year, the Super Bowl. Given the nature of the platform, the immediacy with which information is shared, and its secure place as the second screen during the game, Twitter was the perfect place for our campaign to live. We gave consumers a simple task: during any Super Bowl car ad, tweet the name of someone you want to put in a Volvo using #VolvoContest. After completing their submission, consumers were entered to win 1 of 5 brand new Volvo XC60s. The innovative use of Twitter gave us a compelling story to tell in PR, and in the week leading up to the game, we blitzed the media landscape with countless news articles, as well as a program integration on Jimmy Kimmel Live! With earned media carrying us into Super Bowl weekend, our paid digital media dollars could be strategically placed to boost awareness of our campaign and engagement with it. In the end, over 230 million earned media impressions led to a groundswell of support for our campaign, and more than 55,000 #VolvoContest tweets during the Super Bowl telecast.

Our objective was to bring Volvo, a quiet and often forgotten brand, to the public's attention. To show our belief in the importance of people, proving to the world how we care about our consumers. We needed to break through the Super Bowl clutter, as brands spent $4.5 million for 30 seconds of airtime. We turned the challenge into a strategy. Take that ad momentum, and use smart digital tactics to swivel attention away from competitors. Not just once, but throughout the game.

Eighty stories covered the campaign, generating more than 230 million earned media impressions valued at more than $44 million. Local and national media outlets covered Volvo throughout the weekend. With over 55,000 tweets during the 3 hour telecast, #VolvoContest was the most-tweeted automotive hashtag on Super Bowl Sunday, trending 3 separate times on Twitter and "Volvo" trended globally. Volvo was mentioned nearly 114,000 times on Twitter (3rd-most of any automotive brand - and the only one without an ad) and our online video passed 3,400,000 views in 1 week. But it wasn't just the first step that people took. Of the nearly 20,000 unique users who sent in a tweet, more than 10,700 people filled out the entire nomination form (54% completion), giving us all those unique, wonderful stories to choose from. Most importantly, the XC60 had the highest February sales increase of any car in its segment (70.7% year-over-year).

The idea was simple. Instead of focusing on spending money to get attention, we wanted to give consumers the opportunity do something for a person who matters to them. This was directly aligned with Volvo's position as a brand that focuses on what matters to people. All someone had to do was tweet with #VolvoContest nominating their loved one. The catch: the tweet had to go out during another car company's Super Bowl commercial. So every time a commercial break started, people could send in their nominations. An auto-response from the brand drove people to the next step - a short nomination form, allowing them space to explain why their nominee deserved one of 5 new Volvo XC60s. Online video and earned media coverage leading up to the Super Bowl let people know what they had to do, and Volvo tweets commenting on in-game moments kept people participating for hours.

Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest advertising day of the year. With brands spending $4.5 million for 30 seconds of airtime, we needed to make a much smaller budget work harder with more efficient digital and earned media tactics that could steal attention away from bigger automotive brands on America's biggest stage. Leveraging other brands' effort and momentum could swing desperately-needed awareness and conversation to the Volvo brand. An idea strong enough to affect viewer behavior during the Super Bowl would easily generate PR and earned media coverage. We were confident in the enormous potential of this idea.

We needed to reach out to a new audience on a new stage. Current fans of the brand would see our messaging, but for people who hadn't heard from Volvo, we used online video and targeted social advertising to get them ready for our Super Bowl Sunday activity. A strategic flow of PR communications began with a press release, followed by broad outreach to consumer, dailies/local, trade (advertising/auto) publications, driving media and readers to share our introduction video that outlined our plans for the big game. An exclusive partner was paramount to our success - a custom sketch on Jimmy Kimmel Live! including an on-air giveaway of an XC60 drove massive awareness leading into the weekend. Coupled with aggressive in-game and post-game follow up, we ensured that the Volvo brand was mentioned alongside every other paid sponsor in the biggest media week of the year.