Volvo Cars Announces Greatest Interception Ever Winners and Earns Cannes Lions Grand Prix for Campaign

Volvo Cars Announces Greatest Interception Ever Winners and Earns Cannes Lions Grand Prix For Campaign

Rockleigh, N.J. June X, 2015 – On 2015’s biggest game day in football, Volvo Cars chose customer-driven philanthropy instead of a big-budget ad spend. In doing so, the company launched the award winning “Greatest Interception Ever”, an opportunity for game day viewers to nominate people who inspire them to receive a brand new Volvo XC60.

Whenever any car commercial aired during the big game, people could tweet with the hashtag #VolvoContest to tell the Swedish carmaker who they thought deserved a brand new car and why.

“We wanted to celebrate people and the people that matter most to them,” said Bodil, Eriksson, Executive Vice President Marketing, Brand & Communications of Volvo Cars.  “the response was tremendous and we believe the campaign brought us much closer to our customers.”

The socially-driven alternative to game day TV advertising became one of Volvo’s most successful viral marketing efforts. The campaign fit perfectly with Volvo Car’s human-centric mindset of putting people first in all areas, including the design and technology of all Volvo cars.

Volvo Cars picked up a Grand Prix via Grey New York for the Greatest Interception Ever campaign at the 62^nd Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Selected out of 2,813 entries, the judges noted that Interception was a “smart, strategic, creative and real-time” use of media during the big game.

The Greatest Interception Ever was conceived by Volvo Car’s creative agency Grey New York and was executed in collaboration with Mindshare, Waggener Edstrom and the Volvo Cars of North America team.

Five winners were chosen by judges from the thousands of received entries. All XC60s have now been delivered to the winners and their inspiring stories are detailed below:

• Michael Timm of Des Moines, Iowa was nominated by his sister to get reliable transportation so he could kickstart his photojournalistic project traveling the U.S. to document people with language disorders and better understand communication.
• Adil Gabousse of Miami, Florida was nominated by his wife for his hard work, love of the Volvo brand and the need to have safe transportation as they start their family.
• Caitlin Lowery of Baltimore, Maryland was nominated by her father in recognition of her devotion to service in the Peace Corps, as a literacy volunteer in South America. Her 17-year old Volvo was ready for an upgrade as completes her  studies for a Masters in International Public Health.
• Beth Davalos of Winter Park, Florida was nominated by her aunt for tirelessly working to improve the lives of homeless children as the leader of Families in Transition in Seminole County, Florida and the fact her car has six-figure mileage.
• Megan Flick of St. Mary’s, Iowa was nominated by her daughter for her work with emotionally disturbed children, her successful completion of nursing school as a behavioral health nurse and the need for a new car.

About Volvo Cars of North America

Volvo Cars of North America, LLC, (www.volvocars.com.us) is a subsidiary of Volvo Car Corp. of Gothenburg, Sweden. VCNA provides marketing, sales, parts, service, technology and training support to Volvo automobile retailers in the United States. For more information please refer to the VCNA media website at: http://www.media.volvocars.com/us.