With this idea, we fundamentally re-engineered the car buying experience.

People want to see a car in real before buying it; they want to be seduced.

When the Brussels Motor Show was canceled (due to COVID-19) and prospects couldn’t physically experience the cars anymore, Volvo introduced The Street Configurator.

The world’s first AI-driven web application that recognizes any Volvo in the street and provides you with its configuration instantly. Creating a unique experience of watching the car you like and getting the information you need simultaneously.

This fundamentally changes the experience of car configuration and brand engagement.

Background     

Buying a car is an emotional decision. As a car brand you need to seduce, and The Brussels Motor Show is one of the best events to do so. Every year all car brands try to captivate half a million visitors by showing all their models. It accounts for more than 30% of the turnover of a whole year so when it was canceled, it was a disaster for all car brands. Prospects couldn’t be seduced anymore, and they were forced to switch to a 100% digital environment. Volvo knew that customers weren’t too keen on a fully digital journey, and they knew that people want to see a car in real before buying it. The visual comparison of cars is crucial in the emotional decision process. The challenge was to link physical attraction to a digital sales funnel. This asked for a new experience on how we buy cars.

Creative idea   

Customer experience research learns that people still want to see a car in real before buying it. So, our customer journey starts off in the Belgian streets. People get attracted by a car and all its configured details just as it drives by, creating an instant appeal. Prospects want an instant offer of the exact car they had spotted in the streets, without losing time by guessing and searching the configuration of the car that struck their heart.

Volvo introduced: Volvo Street Configurator.

Making every Volvo in the streets an opportunity to sell. Did you spot the perfect Volvo? Take a photo of the car and get the exact configuration of the desired Volvo you just ran into. You don’t have to go to the showroom anymore as the street is your showroom.

Strategy

With this idea, we were targeting a broad interested audience that were not petrol heads or car connoisseurs that already master the color varieties, wheel versions, and nameplates of the Volvo cars. We wanted to engage a broad 24-55y audience, that could be emotionally triggered and instantly converted into discovering their own future Volvo.

But the process of buying a car online faces 2 barriers; first, it’s quite a hassle to complete a car configuration online if you’re not an expert. Secondly, people in search of a new car want to see the car in real. So, Volvo rethought its customer journey and its approach to displaying and selling cars profoundly. The street needed to be our showroom and technology would be the cornerstone in this conversion, linking physical attraction in the streets with digital commitment towards a fully digitalized car-buying journey.

Execution

Volvo Street configurator is the very first mobile web app that recognizes the configuration of any Volvo on the street. To get people to use the app, we invited everyone to look around them for inspiration with the claim “The street is our showroom”. A national outdoor campaign generating traffic to the app (with an outdoor QR scan possibility) and a SoMe campaign showed Volvo's shot in Belgian streets by three street photographers, again linking to the app. All used media was targeting prospects while they were on the go and most likely to see a Volvo they like. Next to stimulating people to spot Volvo’s, we also lowered the threshold by spreading a tutorial video and using influencers to show how easy it is to find the car you like. From love at first sight to a pre-filled configuration, all in less than 60 seconds.

Results

Turning the street into a showroom turned out to be a successful move by Volvo, as a brand and as a business.

Press lauded this bold move of Volvo as the future way of buying cars. Starting from physical attraction in the street, Volvo generated 10% more configurations than last year, 56% more test drives, and 29% more offer requests. The 175% higher conversion rate resulted in 4492 cars sold in January, making it the best month ever in the history of Volvo Belgium. Starting from a pre-filled configuration, the app generated +450% more completions of configurations compared to desktop configurations.

The tool was developed for Belux, but given the great results, Germany, Austria, the UK, and the US are currently adapting the tool for their country.