Can Volvo's Cars Survive the True Ultimate Safety Test?

Grey has created the Ultimate Safety Test campaign for Volvo Cars. After leading the industry in automotive safety for decades, Volvo Cars is now broadening its focus to make sure sustainability becomes as ingrained in the company culture as safety always has been.

The global campaign, which covers TV, online video, social, digital, OOH and radio and print, is part of wider integrated and marketing efforts from Volvo Cars that reflect the company’s commitment to climate neutrality and electrification.

In the new film, a spokesman called Bjorn takes viewers on a tour of Volvo’s impressive safety tests over the decades, and then up north to the arctic circle, where he asks whether a 100-foot drop qualifies as the ultimate safety test. 

A collapsing glacier provides the answer, interrupting the film with stark reminder that the biggest threat to our safety isn’t on the road. Today, climate change is the ultimate safety test.

This bold statement represents a new chapter for Volvo Cars and their ambition to become a climate neutral company across their value chain by 2040. Their plan to become a fully electric car company by 2030, with half of their global sales being fully electric by 2025, is a key step towards reaching this ambition. Last year one in three of its cars sold in Europe was a rechargeable model. Volvo Cars is hoping to lead the industry’s transition to zero emission mobility which is critical to limiting the impacts of climate change.

“I am very proud to bring the Ultimate Safety Campaign to life”, said Mike Johnstone, Head of Central Marketing & Brand at Volvo Cars. “Sustainability is now as important as safety to us, with climate action having the highest priority, and Volvo Cars has one of the most ambitious climate plans in the car industry. That’s why we’re proud to highlight the work we are doing through this campaign taking real action to combat global warming”.

Volvo Cars’ plan builds on its conviction that fewer and fewer people want traditionally powered cars. With current and future legislation expected to boost the market for electric cars, Volvo Cars also expects accessible, high-quality charging infrastructure will be more common, accelerating the demand for fully electric cars.

Javier Campopiano, chief creative officer Europe and creative chairman UK at Grey said: “Working for Volvo Cars, a brand that cares, both about people safety and the world we live in, is a privilege. By creating the notion of the Ultimate Safety Test, we’ve just crystalized those principles and the menace we face our planet faces; a collapsing glacier represents the ultimate and biggest threat, the one we all need to tackle to be safe”.

The film was shot by Ivan Zacharias at Smuggler in extreme conditions: the crew went all the way to the Arctic Circle and filmed in temperatures of -10C, wearing polar expedition suits in order to be able to operate.