Volvo
Driving engagement with human interest stories
Public Relations | Brand + Product Visibility | Events + Experiential
When our partnership began, Volvo wanted to set itself apart from the competition and engage buyers from a different angle. Working in their favor was nearly 100 years of history — marked by industry-changing innovations in safety, durability and environmentally-sensitive design.
Our challenge was to tell the brand’s story in a way that not only reinforces Volvo’s core values but makes an emotional connection with the audience.
Volvo for life Awards
Our strategy was to shine a light on authentic human interest stories to help Volvo connect with consumers’ hearts and minds. This resulted in the creation and promotion of award-winning cause programs including the Volvo for life Awards, a first-of-its-kind CSR initiative and high-profile NYC event.
The storytelling strategy of the Volvo for life Awards was to celebrate and promote ordinary people doing extraordinary things in their communities. We carefully recruited and activated some of the most powerful cause-related influencers of our time to help promote the program, including Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Paul Newman, Jane Goodall, Maya Lin, Richard Branson, Caroline Kennedy, Hank Aaron, Bill Bradley, Susan Sarandon and more. The heroic crew served as judges, NYC event hosts, hero supporters and spokespeople.
Press Coverage
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation first caught the attention of Volvo when Alexandra “Alex” Scott received an inaugural Volvo for life award nomination. Alex had set a remarkable goal: call upon the nation to raise $1 million to fight pediatric cancer before the year’s end. Sadly, Alex passed away August 1 at the age of 8, having raised over $700,000, but before she died, Volvo made Alex a promise to help her raise the million dollars.
We implemented a communications program to promote Alex’s mission and activate a broader community, resulting in raising hundreds of thousands of dollars towards her cause.
Irv Gordon’s 3 Million Reasons
As part of an integrated marketing program, we led the celebration when Irv Gordon hit three million miles in his 1966 P1800 Volvo. Our strategy was designed to invigorate the Volvo brand, engage customers nationally, and garner big-time buzz.
Sustained public relations outreach targeted key outlets from national TV, top daily newspapers, top-tier bloggers, and auto-oriented media around the world. Haberman’s outreach secured more than five billion total impressions.
Press Coverage
Campaign video
Pirates of the Caribbean treasure hunt
Volvo partnered with Disney on two of its Pirates of the Caribbean movies and launched global treasure hunts as part of the activation. Alongside our PR efforts, Volvo ran a nationwide ad campaign promoting the partnership and hunt. The ads, across multiple movies, featured footage of a car being buried in sand and a treasure chest sinking in the ocean. We leveraged that footage for PR purposes as well as the campaign look, feel and messages across all of our work. Coverage included The New York Times and The Washington Post.
- Created a first-of-its-kind corporate social responsibility initiative
- Campaigns generated billions of impressions
- Recognized by PRWeek as “Cause Campaign of the Year”