Volvo Leads the Way With World's First Fully Integrated Interactive Television Advertising Promotion...Is It True?
IRVINE, Calif.--March 14, 2002--Volvo Cars of North America, LLC, today launches the next generation of its groundbreaking, fully integrated Interactive Television campaign tied to the 2002 NCAA "March Madness" basketball playoffs.Beginning today, promotions aimed at engaging consumers in a dialogue with Volvo will be seen across a comprehensive variety of consumer touchpoints -- TV, interactive TV, Internet, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), WAP-enabled cellular phones, and email -- inviting them to enter a sweepstakes to win a Volvo S60 sports sedan. This enhanced promotion builds on the award-winning "Road to the Volvo S60" promotion of 2001, named Best Online Campaign at the Online Advertising Summit sponsored by Silicon Alley Reporter in New York.
This promotion also marks the debut of a new advertising campaign for Volvo, each execution of which strives to engage consumers in a true dialogue. By posing questions to consumers that they can respond to at www.volvocars.com/questions, every advertisement in this campaign truly becomes interactive, regardless of the actual medium employed. As part of the dialogue they engage in on the web site, customers are given the opportunity to request and receive information about Volvo and its line of vehicles.
The first television spot of this campaign, the basketball-themed "One-on-One," was developed specifically for the "Road to the Volvo S60" promotion and begins airing today. At its conclusion, viewers are invited to visit volvocars.com/questions to answer the question "So what do you think? Good offense or good defense?" as well as to enter the sweepstakes. Once at the site, consumers are able to give their answer as they are exposed to a variety of features of the Volvo S60.
Below is a brief summary of the elements of this campaign, along with the leading interactive entities involved:
| -- | The "One-on-One" television spot that premieres on CBS March 14 was specifically created for the promotion, and will drive viewers to the web to enter the promotion (as well as to experience the entire Volvo site). |
| -- | Wink Interactive television technology will allow certain digital cable viewers to interact with ESPN channels to gain further information about the NCAA via their remote control. While doing so, they will also be given opportunities to enter the sweepstakes. |
| -- | A custom Volvo-branded NCAA information channel on the top PDA service, Avant Go, will allow registered users access to tournament brackets, scores and NCAA news. Content and information will update every time a user synchs up their PDA. Additionally, Volvo has banner inventory on another top ranking service, Vindigo, which provides "one-click" entry into the sweepstakes. These new PDA innovations will also be promoted through the Avant Go and Vindigo e-mail Newsletters. |
| -- | Volvo will also leverage a significant branded presence on major Web properties, including AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, and CBS SportsLine.com. Placements on each of these properties will support the promotion and serve as a point of entry to the sweepstakes. |
| -- | To further leverage the "One-on-One" TV spot, Volvo will be employing several rich media "Video in Banner" executions, including a test of Unicast's 300k Superstitial Ad. Volvo will also look to Bluestreak, Videobanner and Klipmart as partners to run the TV spot off of or within a banner format. |
| -- | PDA and WAP-enabled mobile phone users will also be able to access Volvo-sponsored NCAA content. Similar NCAA updates will be delivered to non-WAP phones using SMS messaging. |
Data from all entry points will be aggregated into one database, where it will be stored for use in future marketing initiatives. Additionally, this collection of data will allow Volvo to analyze the overall success of the campaign as well as the success of the communication via each independent platform, as was done following last year's "Road to the Volvo S60" campaign.
This year's promotion will run throughout the NCAA "March Madness" championship. The winner of the Volvo S60 will be announced via e-mail following the end of the tournament on April 1.
"The success of our 2001 promotion led to an even more comprehensive campaign this year," said Phil Bienert, Manager of CRM, e-Business and Future Product Strategy for Volvo Cars of North America, LLC. "As new technologies emerge, likely Volvo owners are among the first to adopt them. Our experience has shown that, by combining all these media touchpoints, we create opportunities to opt in and begin engaging in a substantive dialogue with Volvo and its products."
Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer Euro RSCG (MVBMS), Volvo's advertising agency of record, and FUEL North America, the integrated marketing communications unit of MVBMS, have teamed with Cylo, a convergent media solutions company, to build this fully integrated promotion.
The Volvo S60 is a sophisticated European sedan that marries sporty performance with state-of-the-art safety. Built on the highly successful platform that is the basis for the elegant S80 luxury sedan, the S60 adopts the fluid styling of the new Volvo design language in a mid-sized sedan that is expected to be a core product for the company.
Volvo Cars of North America is part of the Volvo Car Corporation of Goteborg, Sweden. The company provides marketing, sales, parts, service, technology and training support to 328 Volvo automobile retailers across the country. The 2001 Volvo automobile line includes the flagship S80 luxury sedan, versatile V70 wagon and rugged Cross Country, C70 coupe and convertible, the new sporty S60 sedan and compact S40 and V40 models.