The Moment Enya Starts Singing, Your Jaw Drops / Volvo Trucks "The Epic Split feat. Van Damme"

The problem

Volvo Trucks brought on the agency Forsman & Bodenfors in 2010 to prepare for the 2012 launch of its new truck lineup in Europe. It was the brand's biggest launch in 20 years. Lars Terling, Volvo Trucks' VP of Marketing, said, "Since we were launching a completely new truck, we wanted our communication to be completely new too. We wanted to catch the attention of non-users and get them to understand Volvo Trucks." The target audience ranged enormously, from individual drivers to company CEOs buying in bulk, and since the brand couldn't outspend its competitors on advertising, it needed to outsmart them instead.

The insight

Before planning the campaign, Forsman & Bodenfors interviewed the engineer who developed Volvo's Dynamic Steering system. During the interview, the engineer mentioned, almost in passing, "Actually, the other day we reversed a truck with a trailer at high speed. We thought it was impossible, but with the new steering it worked." That one comment sparked the question: what could you do between two trucks driving backward? It would be fascinating to see the chain of thought that led from "steering stability" all the way to Jean-Claude Van Damme. Van Damme is a martial arts legend known for his flexibility and famous for doing the splits, so casting him made the stunt feel natural and gave it credibility. And then there's Enya.

The idea

Belgian actor Jean-Claude Van Damme performed the splits across the side mirrors of two trucks driving backward, set to Irish singer Enya's "Only Time." The film was produced by Forsman & Bodenfors and directed by Andreas Nilsson. It was shot in a single take at sunrise at the disused Ciudad Real International Airport in Spain. The team spent about five months researching and preparing the concept, putting extra time into building safety systems and training the drivers. After three days of rehearsal, Van Damme's stunt footage was captured in one take. He was protected by an invisible safety harness and wires, with a small platform mounted behind each truck's side mirror. The trucks, steered left and right, were driven by Mikael Rosell. Both trucks reversed at a fixed speed of 25 km/h, each with a co-driver on board monitoring the speed. Because the rising sun would be reflected in frame, there was only a 15-minute window in which filming was possible.

What happened

The video reached 25 million views one week after release, and 40 million views after nine days. Enya's "Only Time" climbed back onto the Billboard Top 100 at number 43, 13 years after its original release. Within 48 hours of release it hit 10 million views, and by the next day it had become the most-shared video in the world. The Live Test campaign as a whole won 20 awards in total at Cannes Lions 2014, including Grand Prix in both the Film and Cyber categories. It won Best in Show at The One Club in May 2014, six awards including the Film Grand Prix at Eurobest in 12/2014, and a Creative Effectiveness award at Cannes Lions in 2015. By the end of 2014, the production cost for the whole campaign was estimated at $3 million to $4 million, and it was estimated to have brought Volvo $170 million in revenue.

Afterthought

Looking back, it's honestly staggering that this film, the sixth in the "Live Tests" campaign released in 11/2013, launched the same year as that hamster ad. I suppose that just goes to show how far you can push things, but still, it's amazing. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the first time I watched it, the moment Enya started singing my jaw dropped and I let out a tiny "whaaat" (I was in public, so I kept it quiet), and my mouth stayed open all the way to the end. I'd love to peek inside the chain of thought that goes from "steering stability" to Jean-Claude Van Damme. And then there's Enya.

Awards

• Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2014

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