How Volvo is leveraging Pinterest for success?

Volvo is one of the first car companies to have launched a unique promotion on Pinterest. And it did that with a very apt model to start with: The S60T5

Needless to say this model of Volvo focuses on its impeccable design, technology and lowest entry price point attributes and targets young internet savvy professionals.

Watch a video with commentary from the S60 Brand Manager-Frank Vacca here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKVxM5OW0yI

Now, Volvo deviated from just posting vehicle pictures, hoping that people will repin or like them and actually went ahead to launch a full promotional program to attract, involve and recognize people thereby creating a buzz around its new model S60T5

Volvo named this program ‘joyride’ and tied up with the famous designer- blogger and pinterest user Victoria Smith. Victoria Smith is the founder of lifestyle & design blog- www.sfgirlbybay.com with a huge following.

Victoria went on a road trip which was filmed, and along the way Victoria would pin great photographs of the journey, locations and other cool stuff .

Now, you would agree that this one action does inspire people to pin their travel photographs, and that’s what Volvo targeted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0Gb9BsbP1I

Volvo’s proposition is that you could also win a bounty (S60 for 4 days, along with GVs for fuel, food, shopping and free stay) if you repin one of the T5 images and also images from other categories into your board (titled Volvo Joyride + all pins tagged as #volvojoyride) and share the same with your social circle (facebook, twitter etc.) so that maximum no. of your friends can like or repin further.

Is it working?
The contest was launched on Sep, 05th 2012, and Volvo has 600 followers so far. Not a great number, but given that Volvo wants to make itself more relevant to a specific segment as also to highlight it’s focus on design, we believe that in the weeks to come this will create more momentum as also also allow Volvo to measure the reach , interest and referral traffic to YouTube and it’s test drive programs. Above all it’s a commendable start.

Key Learning:

Don’t just show images of your brand on pinterest-create relevance for people. A brand can show through pictures, situations where it is most relevant to users. Or a Brand can show how it completes or complements a certain experience through pictures.

image courtsey: http://www.picstopin.com

Summary: