Yesterday during lunch, Nathan Burke checked out a promotion on the Volvo website that contained the headline, “Who Would You Give A Volvo To?” So he checked out the site which asks people to submit stories and/or videos about special people in their lives and why he’d like them to have a Volvo. While car manufacturers don’t give cars aways every day, the wording of the promotion certainly might lead someone to believe one would be. But, buried deep in the FAQ is this: “Is there a Volvo vehicle being given away as part of the ‘Who Would You Give A Volvo To?’ campaign? No. The WWYGAVT campaign is intended to make people think about the safety initiatives Volvo has taken in vehicle development and therefore why they would consider a Volvo for the special individuals in their lives.”
So while it’s nice to see Volvo getting into the whole consumer generated media/social media/get consumers to make your ads thing, one might assume Volvo would at least offer some sort of incentive for people to offer up their stories. Oh sure, we should all be willing to pontificate our love for another without being bribed to do so but this isn’t a come to Jesus meeting. It’s capitalism hard at work. Volvo wants to sell cars. Volvo wants people to get all emotional because emotion sells. But in a tit for tat capitalistic society, a little give and take is not always a bad thing. Would one car really cost them that much? No, they spend more than that on advertising in less than one hour in any given day. It’s peanuts. But to the average person, the chance to win a car is a very big motivator.
