I’m calling it. This commercial for Volvo Trucks that came out today is the best commercial of 2013. What makes it – or other commercial shoots - so successful? Beautiful, simple ideas, a great concept, seamless execution, a bit of good old nostalgia and a pinch of the unexpected all mix beautifully to give us 70 seconds of pure brilliance. With four eight twelve twenty four thirty million views and counting, let's take a look and see why this ad has been so successful.
For those of us of a certain generation, we will remember the king of kickboxing, Jean Claude Van Damme, from his many action films like “Bloodsport” and “Kickboxer”, and his insane ability to do the split kicks. It’s what he became known for. Volvo played to this brilliantly today with their demonstration of their truck's technical excellence in their new ad, by combining man and machine, in a statement piece that simply says “engineering excellence”.
The opening is a shocker for those of us who still remember Jean Claude from back in his hey day. He looks so old! But by the time the end of the commercial comes up, we’re touched by how he “still has the old magic”. It’s shot so simply and beautifully, all on a one shot take that starts in on a close up, smoothly tracks out to a wide and then tracks off to the side so we are left with a super strong, beautiful composition as the commercial ends.
Like the best commercials, we are left with a sense of awe, wonder, and amazement at what we've just seen - it is memorable. In an age and time where our attention spans are measured in fractions of seconds, this commercial just does everything right. As soon as I watched it, I went straight back and watched it again. It was that good. Today, a successful commercial is one that goes viral, that gets us talking, and makes us want to watch it again. The "stickiness" of commercials - how long we remember and talk about them for - is what makes them successful. Will this sell more Volvo trucks? Time will tell, but as far as a successful, sticky commercial goes, this one is pure gold.
They also filmed a little funny behind the scenes piece (albeit with little to no technical BTS information, it does help set the scene for the actual commercial very nicely).
It just goes to show – success isn’t something impossible or unfathomable or insanely out of reach, but it is about having the right ingredients, mixed properly together and carefully executed. It's about focusing on keeping things simple, not getting unnecessarily twisted up in all sorts of complexity for the sake of it. A simple concept, something that is well thought out, planned properly, shot simply and beautifully, and then has a drop of nostalgia and a little surprise added to the mix provides the basis for an amazing, heart stopping piece of visual media.
192 Comments
BRILLIANT!!! LOVE!
Extraordinaire! Great video by all standards!!
This is truly epic.. It looks incredible & you couldn't have picked a better person to do it & the music & beautiful simplicity is something to wonder at.. Majestic & Magnificent..
Couldn't agree more! Over 7 million views in a few days, heck 600k since I first looked a few hours ago. It's not even for a consumer product. Unlike some commercials, everyone who has seen or heard this one knows it's about the trucks. Sometimes you hit it outta the park, they got this one off the map. I checked out some of their other ads, and while clever, they nuanced this one to be incredible.
This is the commercial that is so exquisite that makes your heart stop and then go in big thumps again!
How did he get off the trucks after the split?
By doing a roundhouse kick.
hahahahaha only way he would yeah hahahaha
Who said they had finished? They are probably still driving backwards with him perched there legs split wide LOL
Mind blown! Watched it 4 times, and I think the music was a perfect choice because it made it more emotional. But the last few seconds... why do they need captions of the captions??
You can turn off the Youtube captions y'know ;-)
hairs on my arms raising. this is a very beautiful video.
yeah so wind resistance should have blown him right off, i mean, a split doesnt exactly give you balance and grip?
Yeah, because they were REALLY going fast... Wind must of been intense. His shirt says is all.
A few thoughts come to mind.
Only the left truck turns.
The left truck is shorter - The right truck has three back tires, the left only 2.
Look at the lines right in the beginning behind his head and see how many bumps he has to go through with his eyes closed and note when then the trucks move faster (film sped up) after he opens his eyes. how they barely moved.
The surprisingly "bumpy road" (camera shake) stops and becomes super smooth once its no longer needed.
He opens up to the exact distance of the dashed line (probably painted for this reason.)
This can very well be filmed at super epic slow speed then moved up to a "realistic" movement.
I don't know if they sped it up. Look at his shirt, the whole time it flaps in a realistic manner. If it was sped up it would look crazy.
Again..today's video effects are state of the art..you really don't know what's real anymore...
this picture does all the talking. oh, there is a fan. century. and whats over there on the left? :).
of course its a CG, two shots stitched up together.
Nevertheless, its still awesomeness :)
and they CGI'd another shirt too then?
you really don`t know anything about the industry do you? :)two words: test shoot.
If everything was cgi..instead JCVD why not use Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga?
I'm thinking the bumpy road at the beginning that transitions to smooth, can in part or in whole be attributed to the transition from telephoto to wide angle. Wide angle is a lot more forgiving than telephoto when it comes to camera shake. Yes, the bumpy/smooth transition also accomplishes the goal of telling a certain story, which it should, since our roles as photographers are to communicate ideas through our selection of lenses, lighting, composition etc. I think they had a story to tell and did it beautifully.
Calling something the most successful without metrics to back up the statement is like saying I was the best freshman football player in the country even when I did not get in games. The art for art sake mentality is completely contrary to today's marketing and business challenges. Looks good for sure but the proof is in the sales, brand measurement and intent to purchase lift. Without data to back up your statement this is another tree falling in the forest
To be fair, he was describing how successfully the commercial was executed. This was more of a commercial/video review, not a "oh look how many cars/trucks Volvo has sold since the release of the commercial". While I do completely agree with what you say from a business point of view, I feel like your critique was posted on the wrong blog.
Marketing today does not live in a creative silo. Creative and message success has to be measured and deemed successful on results not looks, sound or execution. If something is beautiful but does not drive sales or leads is it still successful? The point of my post is there is no such thing as art for art's sake anymore in marketing.
Oh I completely agree with you; I have been a graphic designer for 25+ years, so trust me, I know exactly what you are talking about. I just thought that the blog wasn't really saying "This is the best marketed commercial", that's all. And yes, I agree, art and marketing don't necessarily go hand in hand, hardly ever; that's probably why they call it 'design', which only purpose is to sell a product.
you're annoying
STFU already....
Trust me if I had the money I would've gone out and bought two of these trucks straight away! On the sheer hope that Enya & JCVD would rock up and we could replay the add on my street!
Translated: Snobby comment about your article.
Sales are nothing without awareness of the product. What this has done is open the eyes to future truckers, car buyers and many non-potential clients. Volvo isn't what it used to be. It isn't the first choice of car buyers. I challenge the effects of this video will lead to a few new sales there.
The review is as beautiful as the commercial. Bravo! :)
what did you ever do?
Beautiful ! very good idea and well produce but of course there are a trick.
For me the key to understand is the face of JCV, I think I'm not the only one who find unnatural the lighting and the movements of his head.
I mean his face is pretty well lighted if you note that the sun is just behind him, some artificials lights are needed to do it but why the shadows doesn't move when the camera go away?
and why his face seems to be still in front of the camera during the low angle shoot?
For me they have filmed the trucks without JCV and then filmed split kick shoot in studio (lights and shadows doesn't move) with the same camera mouvements. The magic of post production and the carema tracking doing the rest.
I've also noted a little mouvement of the right foot who would be dramatical if you are balanced like this. (see it at 49 sec)
Anybody else notice the trucks are moving backwards? :)
Nope. See, you really ARE special.
why are the trucks going backwards?
To highlight Volvo's dynamic steering system. Have you ever tried to back a trailer? This shows the system perfectly controlling the trailer's course while backing up over a long distance.
Exactly. It's a better visual for how accurate the precision steering is because driving backwards is essentially a lot less "natural" than driving in a forward motion which is how we all spend the majority of our time when driving or being driven.
Driving forward, the trailer just follows. When backing up the cab is normally jogged from side to side as the driver makes corrections. This shows perfect tracking in reverse.
You need to rewatch the commercial Ron. The truck on the left is a straight truck - and it's the only one moving apart to form the split. This could not have been done with 2 semis - (which is proof alone that the trucks are moving backwards and the commercial was filmed exactly as we see it.).
That's what I was wondering Ron.
on left truck i know for sure that has driving by gps , saw with my own eyes in germany a driver who was eating and his feet where up on board so this video confirme once again how far tech got to us
I still remember that car commercial with that snazzy kid going "zoom zoom"
Jean Claude - gotta love this guy "...when we finish shooting if I'm not dead..."
OMG they really were going backwards.
Van Damme is incredible! I do not know if anyone noticed, but in the right foot of Van Damme you can see that his foot is strapped in the truck, they adapted something to hold his foot, not to run the risk of falling. Anyway, to make this opening with feet tied or not, it is very difficult, only the master Van Damme himself.
...gay
what happened is that the right truck actually tried to turn, but JCVD hold it with his legs.
It was actually Chuck Noris.
disguised as JCVD? omg, I knew it!