The Epic Split

How many brands can say they created an ad that got over 100 million views? Not many. But if that brand is Volvo, and they combine brilliant strategy with a legendary action star like Jean Claude Van Damme, then the likelihood of success is inevitable.

Why? Because this ad is an example of what it means to have trust in a brand. For Jean Claude to have agreed to this job, where his movements and those of the drivers involved demonstrated the stability and precision of Volvo dynamic steering, he needed to have zero doubt in the accuracy and precision of Volvo. To prove this,

• He was his own stuntman
• There was no CGI
• This was done in ONE take
• He did the splits (in his 50s!)
• His life was truly on the line

From a brand perspective, what Volvo and Van Damme accomplished was what the best professional marketers know to be true:

• Everything communicates
• You must live out your brand promise
• You must act with ruthless consistency
• You must endeavor to be surprisingly consistent and consistently surprising
• You must strive for word-of-mouth marketing, as it’s the most powerful kind there is

This is what I’d call jaw-dropping marketing, which is even better than word-of-mouth! What do you think?

Watch the full ad below!