Grey London has unveiled its first work for Volvo Car Group, which aims to shake up "bland car advertising".
The film called "the swell" urges the viewer to "seek feeling". It starts in the passenger seat of a car parked on an empty beach. The camera moves back, goes around the car and to the water’s edge. The narrator says: "To feel, to really feel, is a rare thing these days." Then the camera plunges into the water and into the surf.
The ad breaks today on Volvo’s global YouTube account and website. It will be pushed out on Volvo’s social media channels.
It will be shown on TV in Germany, Australia, France, Turkey and Belgium at the end of this year, and will go on air in the UK at the start of 2015.
The global TV campaign for Volvo’s existing XC60 model is a shift in tone for the car manufacturer, moving the brand into a more premium space. The new brand positioning will focus on ambition, simplicity, authenticity and its Swedish heritage. A campaign for its XC90 car is also imminent.
Grey London’s global creative director Hollie Newton said: "The last thing the world needs is another overly-retouched car, hooning down a mountain road to a soft rock soundtrack. There's a defiant, slightly renegade Swedish spirit to Volvo that simply doesn't fit with the bland world of car advertising. And thank God for that.
"We have an enormous suite of work coming up for Volvo that challenges the conventions of the sector. This is the first. A quietly epic piece of film that, hopefully, makes you feel something."
"The swell" was directed by the Swedish director Marcus Soderlund through Academy Films. The creative team is Hollie Newton, Jamie Starbuck and Howard Green.
It is Grey’s first work for Volvo following its appointment as global creative agency in December last year, after a competitive pitch. It is also Newton’s first work for Grey, after joining from Wieden + Kennedy last year.
Source: http://www.brandrepublic.com/
