Grey Canada Leverages Hours of YouTube Views for Volvo Campaign

By Kiran Aditham 

autobrakebieber2Grey Canada offers its own unique touch in a new Volvo campaign with nary a Jean-Claude Van Damme appearance in sight.

To help the Swedish automaker roll out its new XC60 line and promote the SUV’s 60-some “feature innovations,” Grey’s Toronto-based office decided to tweak your standard YouTube pre-roll ads we’re used to seeing before every video by replacing them with brief clips touting various XC60 capabilities.

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Some more screen shots:

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Get it?!

In “6 Billion Hours”–named for the average amount of time humans spend watching stuff on YouTube over the course of a month–a Grey Canada team of creatives, media people and analysts apparently “worked together 24/7” to develop hundreds of XC60 feature pre-rolls.

They are contextually, albeit loosely, tethered to specific trending YouTube themes: twerking, a Justin Bieber clip complete with “make him stop” comments, various weather-related phenomena (hello, XC60 rain sensor!), et cetera.

Grey Canada’s pre-roll creations do a pretty good job of presenting the best and worst of what YouTube has to offer. They even remind us that some comment sections are worse than others…

Agency: Grey Canada
Chief Creative Officer: Patrick Scissons
Creative Director: James Ansley
Art Director: Rob Trickey
Writer: Dave Barber
Agency Producer: Erica Metcalfe
Account Service: Mariam Saab, Paul Curtin
Production Specialist: Biko Franklin
Technology: John Breton
Media Agency: HAVAS
Media Planning: Mark-Olivier Thibault, Kirk Cavell
Film Production: Sugino Studio
Director: Shin Sugino
DOP: James Gardner
Producers: Andy McLeod, Dan Arki
Editorial: Saints
Editor: Melanie Hider
Colourist: Eric Whipp, Alter Ego
Visual Effects: Topix – Marco Polsinell, Eugene Marchio
Audio House: Apollo Music – Daenen Bramberger, Tom Hutch, Spencer Hall

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