Can you do a split on top of a fast-moving vehicle on an empty highway?! This man could. [Fridays: Gorillas of Guerrilla Marketing]
On the road…
… when your car is in the middle of two giant trucks…
… what do you usually do?
You do your best to get out of that zone, right?
It’s pretty intimidating for a driver to be in that position.
But what if you’re not in a car?
What if you’re hanging in between two moving trucks cruising on a highway?
Scary!
Not for this man though.
This famous action star confidently did a center SPLIT in between two trucks.
NOT JUST THAT!
Those trucks were moving in REVERSE.
What brand is the mastermind of this daring and crazy stunt?
VOLVO TRUCKS
Volvo Trucks is a global manufacturing company headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden.
This company is…
- one of the most outstanding truck brands in the world
- known for its innovative strategies to deliver a premium experience through intuitive technology and effortless solutions
- focused on making clients’ life easier, better, and safer with cutting-edge technology
Who is the famous action star that performed the stunt?
JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME
NO CAMERA TRICKS.
In November 2013, Volvo released an advertising campaign called, “The Epic Split.”
In this out of the box guerrilla marketing campaign, Jean-Claude Van Damme successfully performs a center split between two Volvo trucks that are moving in reverse down a closed off highway!
As part of the video, his voice in the background said:
He did the stunt with so much confidence and finesse that it looked like the whole video was edited!
It didn’t even look like he had an ounce of fear in his body.
AMAZING.
This campaign demonstrates the precision and directional stability of the Volvo Dynamic Steering—the world’s first technology that makes the Volvo FM (Forward control Medium height cab) easier to drive.
The Volvo Dynamic Steering “… gives you perfect precision, near effortless steering and returns the wheel to neutral automatically. And with improved course stability you can reverse more than 100 metres without drifting off course.” – VolvoTrucks.com
The target market is truck drivers and construction businesses, but due to the unique concept of this campaign, the video attracted a bigger market and became viral around the world.
“The Epic Split” campaign achieved a lot and received awards and recognitions.
- The video of the stunt gained around 99 million views on YouTube.
- The campaign won the Best in Show Award from The One Club in 2014.
- The campaign received six prizes including the Film Grand Prix at the Eurobest Awards in Helsinki, Finland last December 2014.
- The campaign received the Grand Prix Award at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for Creative Effectiveness in 2015.
- Because of the campaign, Volvo Group’s sales for 2013 reached around SEK 273 billion (USD 29.2 billion), with trucks at 65% of the total revenue.
… and many more!
Let’s not forget the ad agency that worked with Volvo Trucks to create this successful campaign.
Volvo Trucks partnered with the Forsman & Bodenfors Creative Agency. Both parties really wanted to create a buzz in the online community.
And they did!
Their creative concept on how they can showcase the brand’s innovation and development for their new products is exemplary.
“Truck buyers are surrounded by a lot of influencers, and the largest group is truck drivers. And you can’t reach truck drivers with traditional advertising. We needed to go broad, and we didn’t have a media budget, so we decided viral was the only way to go.” – Engstrom of Forsman & Bodenfors
Pretty effective, right?
Through creative and viral campaigns, you can help boost the credibility and exposure of your brand to your chosen target market (or even to groups beyond that).
It all depends on the uniqueness of your campaign.
Try out of the box ideas to captivate your target audience’s attention.
With the right mix of strategy and creativity, you can create a campaign that can effectively promote your brand and attract a lot of people too!
About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Fridays: Gorillas of Guerrilla Marketing”
Jay Conrad Levinson (1984) said that Guerrilla Marketing “works because it’s simple to appreciate, easy to execute, and inexpensive.”
Guerrilla Marketing is unconventional.
Looking beyond the traditional ways of advertising, marketers, and advertisers need to spice things up in order for their brand to have campaigns that not only make an impact but also stick to their target market’s mind.
Guerrilla Marketing usually aims to have direct contact with consumers.
This type of direct contact should spark an emotional reaction that leads to consumers effectively remembering the brand.
It’s about making a big impression and making that impression last a long time (if not forever).
Guerrilla Marketing is inexpensive.
The effect of this is being able to create a buzz around the brand, and the strategy used to market it. Almost everything is passed around through word-of-mouth.
Word-of-mouth is one of the greatest outcomes and it usually doesn’t cost anything.
This is every business’ or brand’s dream!
Every Friday, we publish tips, examples, and other useful content on unconventional ways of marketing and promotion.
Learn more about how to grab your target market’s attention and make an amazing first and lasting impression without having to spend a lot of money.
Businesses don’t really need to spend much for a guerrilla campaign. You do not need a big budget to be successful. You just need creativity and a good imagination.
Hope you’ve found this week’s guerrilla marketing insight interesting and helpful.
Stay tuned for next Friday’s Gorillas of Guerrilla!
Cheers,
Kyle Yu
Head of Marketing
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
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