Volvo’s CEO Roger Alm is in for something amazing. Just recently, the president has announced that the company is introducing four new trucks, each of them being specially designed to fit the drivers’ needs. “We are really proud of this big forward-looking investment. Our aim is to be our customers’ best business partner by making them even more competitive and help them attract the best drivers in an increasingly tough market,” says Alm who presented the newest members of the Volvo family: Volvo FH, Volvo FH16, Volvo FM, and Volvo FMX.
The new generation of heavy-duty trucks won’t sell by themselves. They need to make themselves some room on the market. They need something huge. What you are probably thinking of is that this group of vehicles needs a red-carpet treatment. Yet, you cannot be more wrong. According to Volvo, the red carpet is such a cliché. So, the car manufacturer went beyond this concept and imagined its own version of a red carpet. Check this out: Wet asphalt instead of a carpet, lightning instead of camera lights, and dogs barking instead of guests. Hold on, because you are about to see the real stars of the show.
We don’t know why, but this scene reminded us of “THIR13EN Ghosts” movie, a 2001 supernatural horror film directed by Steve Beck. If you’ve seen it, you probably know the scene that opens the film: a bunch of ghost hunters go in a vehicle graveyard to capture a spirit. It’s night, it’s raining heavily, and things simply transform into mayhem. A few members of the group die, including the head of the operation, Cyrus Kriticos, who developed a habit of collecting ghosts.
No one dies in Volvo’s scenario, luckily. Yet, things are just as dangerous. Well, not the supernatural kind of unsafe. Let’s just say that our Kriticos, represented by Roger Alm, is a bit adventurous. The CEO, together with Forsman & Bodenfors creative agency, planned a strategy to capture not ghosts but people’s attention. To do so, he and his team decided to create a tower that shall rise in the mist of the night. A pretty nice tower seen from a distance. However, up close, the tower is nothing else but the four Volvo trucks put one over the other. The cherry on top? Roger Alm, who guards his babies from up there.
The truck monolith was born to show the audience how powerful and strong the new vehicles are. The ensemble is 15 meters high and weighs 58 tonnes. Plus a few more kilograms, if we count Alm. We’re just happy that he did not fall off from the tower. “I’m used to being on top of things, but for me, shooting the truck tower was definitely an unusual day at work. And let’s just say I have a certain respect for heights. I’m a down to earth guy,” said Alm, who, we can only guess, is happy for being on the ground again.
”It took about a month to design and build the tower and make sure it was safe to drive. Essentially, this was made possible thanks to the sturdy construction truck, the Volvo FMX, and its new 38-tonne bogie being able to carry the weight of the others. But it also required a steady speed and course, accomplished by the Volvo Dynamic Steering technology and a skilled truck driver,” said Markus Wikström, an engineer at Volvo Trucks and part of the engineering team behind the tower.
The video was shot in late 2019 on a testing ground outside Volvo’s hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden. Both the truck tower and most of the visual effects are real, including the smoke and lights, as the behind-the-scenes film reveals, which you can check below.
Credits:
Client: Volvo Trucks
Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors