The Greatest Interception Ever: the 2015 contest

Read the campaign story

Volvo’s 2015 Super Bowl activity used other car advertisements as a signal to act. Before the game, the company announced that viewers could nominate someone deserving of a Volvo XC60 by tweeting with its contest hashtag when an automotive commercial appeared. The promotion ran during the game on 1 February. A response then directed eligible participants to explain their nomination in a fuller entry.

Grey New York developed the idea with Volvo and communications partners. The brand’s launch release sets out the entry sequence, while Direct New Ideas describes supporting online video, targeted social advertising and live activity. A later Volvo announcement confirms that selected winners received cars. This was a planned competition with rules and fulfilment, not simply a spontaneous tweet that happened to attract attention.

Editorial reading: The campaign converted a competitor’s category reminder into its own behavioural trigger. Viewers did not need to remember an arbitrary time to participate. Every relevant commercial could remind them of Volvo’s invitation. The cleverness lies in linking attention already being purchased in the category to a different action on a second screen, rather than assuming that a hashtag alone would create an audience.

The nomination requirement added meaning to the incentive. Instead of asking only who wanted a prize, the campaign asked participants to consider another person. That supplied a story consistent with Volvo’s stated people-centred positioning. It also created a second step where interest became a considered entry. The initial tweet and the completed nomination were therefore different behaviours, and should not be counted as equivalent engagement.

There are practical limits to the approach. A competitor-triggered promotion needs clear eligibility, adequate response capacity and a fulfilment process that can survive sudden demand. It should not imply an official relationship with the event or with other advertisers. A smaller business could use a publicly observable, non-exclusive occasion as a reminder, but it still needs to make its own offer understandable and comply with promotion rules.

This case does not assign contemporaneous vehicle sales changes to the campaign. The opened sources establish the activation and prize delivery, while promotional reach figures remain outside the study. The transferable lesson is to design the complete route from trigger to meaningful action. Borrowed attention is only the beginning; the invitation, response, entry and fulfilment must work together if the brand wants more than a fleeting interruption.

Choose a recognisable trigger

Use an event audiences can identify without complicated instructions.

Design the second step

Make the route from public response to completed participation clear and reliable.

Plan fulfilment before attention

Set eligibility, response capacity and prize delivery before promoting the invitation.

A small test for another brief

Use a public occasion to invite a small, rule-based nomination programme.

Track completed eligible nominations and fulfilment quality rather than raw mentions.

Stop if entry rules are confusing or response volume exceeds safe operating capacity.

• Define an unambiguous trigger and lawful eligibility.
• Build a short nomination form and response process.
• Test fulfilment before announcing the pilot.