Volvo wanted to invoke passion and buzz around the launch of its new S60 sedan. The auto brand aspired to showcase the sedan as an edgy lifestyle vehicle that consumers would feel proud to own and excited to drive. To that end, Volvo and its agency partner, Mobext, the mobile marketing arm of MPG and Media Contacts, decided that its mobile strategy needed to focus on emotive formats, such as mobile video and rich media.
Solution: To promote the S60, the Volvo team ran an extensive mobile branding campaign with Google. With Google’s AdMob platform, the Volvo team targeted smartphone owners, a demographic that was more likely to have higher household incomes and more likely to be in the market for a vehicle like the S60. The Volvo team used a combination of banners and interactive video ads to engage consumers while they were browsing mobile content on their phones. The interactive video ads showcased a fast-paced 30-second video of the S60 and allowed users to browse additional images of the car and even visit the site, all without taking the user out of the video ad and the original content that he was browsing.
From the mobile ads, consumers could direct themselves to the S60’s mobileoptimized site where they could engage deeper with the brand. Once there, consumers could rotate an image of the car on their phones for a 360 view of the vehicle, swipe their screens to view more photos & videos, and locate nearby dealerships. Consumer Interactions on Video Ad and Mobile Site Volvo achieved significant brand lift and engagement through mobile display & video ads. Case Study | Volvo Cars of North America Rotate car for 360 view Swipe for images of car View additional videos of car Locate nearest dealer
Results: According to InsightExpress, the research partner that tracked the branding impact of the campaign, Volvo achieved significant lift across all brand metrics: +240% in brand favorability +88% in purchase intent +78% in recommendation intent These results set a new bar in mobile ads as InsightExpress indicated that Volvo outperformed average brand lift for automotive advertisers by 11x. Interaction and click-through rates also exceeded the client team’s expectations. According to Google, mobile users interacted with Volvo’s ads for 1 minute on average. The CTR for Volvo’s mobile campaign was 3.9%, roughly 10x more than Volvo’s traditional banner CTRs.
These successes also expanded the Volvo team’s approach to mobile advertising. Prior to this campaign, the client envisioned mobile primarily as a direct response channel. Since then, Volvo and Mobext now view mobile as a branding mainstay and have added mobile to several upcoming branding and engagement programs.