Volvo Starts Its Engine on Pinterest Campaign
The car company hopes to present itself in a new light to a different audience with contest on Pinterest.
The car company hopes to present itself in a new light to a different audience with contest on Pinterest.
Volvo Cars of North America is tapping into the aspirational nature of Pinterest by asking users to describe their ideal road trip in a new campaign it hopes will ultimately present the brand in a new light to a different audience.
This marks Volvo’s first foray into Pinterest and marks the launch of the car manufacturer’s official Pinterest channel.
In the new promotion, Pinterest users who create a pinboard named “Volvo Joyride” through September 26 and pin the Volvo model S60 T5 AWD along with their favorite road trip destination, stops, attractions, outfits, songs, and other items that make up their ideal trip will be entered to win one four-day lease of the aforementioned car. Winners receive additional road trip perks, including a two-night hotel stay and gift cards for gas, food/beverage, clothing, and music.
Three winners will be selected with the most re-pins, likes, and comments.
According to Linda Gangeri, manager of marketing platforms and technologies, Volvo Joyride has over 600 participants to date.
And, so far, Volvo’s new Pinterest page has five boards, 77 pins, and about 775 followers.
Gangeri says Volvo had a soft launch on Pinterest in August.
“We built out the first pinboards to highlight the design elements that make our cars unique, display how pet friendly our cars are, how versatile your life can be living with a Volvo and our various concept cars over the years,” she says. “This brand is a lifestyle brand and Pinterest presented an opportunity to showcase that.”
In addition, Pinterest was a platform of interest to Volvo because its target audience is women 25 to 54 years old.
“We are more of a female brand than a male brand,” she says.
Gangeri also notes Pinterest is a good fit because it is a visual platform that allows users to share what they are passionate about. Users are already pinning fashion, travel, and product-related content.
“We wanted to create an activation around the most popular elements that were being pinned with the ability to use the product on [their] terms,” Gangeri says, adding that it marks a shift toward more intention-driven social marketing.
“Users who engage with a brand and pin a brand’s content have a high intention to purchase those items that they pin,” she says. “Also, the high quality referrals that brands are seeing from Pinterest are indicative of the mindset of their user base. We want to be where the high quality engagement/leads are.”
In order to promote the campaign, Volvo tapped design and lifestyle blogger Victoria Smith of sfgirlbybay to make her own Volvo Joyride board and YouTube video.
Smith has 418,000 followers on Pinterest. In her Volvo Joyride board, she included images of clothes, postcards, landscapes, hotels, and music.
Six of her posts directly push the contest, saying, “If you’d like to win your own Volvo Joyride go to the Pinterest Contest Board http://pinterest.com/volvocarsus/volvo-joyride/.”