Volvo casts Zlatan Ibrahimović as the face of Sweden

A tribute to Sweden, spoken by its best known footballer

On Saturday 25 January 2014, Volvo premiered a two minute film on TV4 and online in which Zlatan Ibrahimović, captain of the Swedish national football team, recites a new version of the Swedish national anthem, "Du gamla, du fria".^1,2,3 The film, created by Forsman & Bodenfors in Gothenburg and directed by Seb Edwards of Academy Films, carried the signature "Made by Sweden" and was built around the Volvo XC70.^4,5 It premiered during a popular Swedish entertainment programme and was then spread across social media, PR, cinema, outdoor, print and online.³

The setting is the far north of Sweden. Ibrahimović hunts, dives into icy water, cuts his son's hair and drives the XC70 through snow covered forests.^2,3 The car is one of three monuments of modern Sweden brought together in the film, alongside Ibrahimović and the producer Max Martin.⁵ In this arrangement the product does not need to be explained. It borrows its meaning from the country around it.

The anthem as material

The soundtrack was arranged and produced by Max Martin together with Style of Eye, Joakim Jarl and Svidden, credited as "Zlatan feat. Day".⁴ Ibrahimović explained his reading of the anthem to Dagens Industri, as reported by The Local: "This is as Sweden looks like 2014." He added: "A mix everywhere. I can be Swedish all the same."² Of the original he said: "The old one was long and boring."²

The choice of speaker carries the message. Ibrahimović's own story, as Volvo later told it, is a rise from a tough Malmö neighbourhood to international stardom.⁶ Having him speak the national anthem connects Volvo not to a nostalgic picture of Sweden but to a contemporary, mixed one, and lets the brand claim that version of the country as its own. The recording later had a life outside the advertisement: in October 2015 Ibrahimović received a gold disc for 3,000,000 Swedish streams of his version.⁷

Swedishness after the change of owner

The campaign came three and a half years after Geely Holding Group completed its acquisition of Volvo Cars from Ford on 2 August 2010.⁸ Volvo's announcement of the film put the brand's origin at the centre. Anders Gustafsson, managing director of Volvo Personbilar Sverige, said: "Volvo is part of a global world, but it is at home in Sweden that we draw our strength and inspiration." He added: "That is why it feels very good to confirm that we are working together on a tribute to Sweden".¹ Forsman & Bodenfors described the idea in similar terms: "It's our country's unique nature that inspires and challenge the people at Volvo when they develop their cars."⁴

The direction had been prepared a year earlier. In May 2013 Volvo launched the XC60 with Swedish House Mafia and a new version of "Leave the World Behind", filmed in Scandinavia. Per Carleö, Marketing Manager, Volvo Cars, said: "We found a great connection in our joint Scandinavian roots and have built the project around this."⁹ With Ibrahimović, the reference narrowed from Scandinavia to Sweden, and the phrase Made by Sweden gave it a name.⁵ The line shifts the claim from where a car is built to who it comes from, so that the country itself becomes the maker.

Reach, sales and a limited edition

The film passed one million YouTube views in less than two days.¹⁰ According to the Eurobest entry, it was the second most shared commercial in the world in its first week while airing only on Swedish television, coverage reached roughly 200 million people through 870 articles and reports, and "Volvo XC70 smashed the sales target by 263% during the first campaign weeks".³ Volvo later wrote that "the impact of the campaign was so strong that sales of the XC70 grew markedly during its last years of production".¹¹

In February 2014 Volvo announced a limited run of 150 XC70 D5 AWD "Zlatan" cars in Electric Silver, identical to the film car except for two decals on the tailgate: "Made by Sweden" and Ibrahimović's autograph.¹² The campaign line thus moved from the screen onto the product.

Awards and what followed

At Eurobest 2014 "Made by Sweden feat. Zlatan" won Silver in Branded Content and Entertainment, in the category Use or Integration of Music.³ At Guldägget 2015 the work won a Silver Egg in PR.¹³ The same agency had produced The Epic Split for Volvo Trucks shortly before, which Little Black Book noted in its report on the film.⁴

The platform remained. In December 2015 Volvo Cars named Forsman & Bodenfors its global strategic creative agency, with the task of highlighting human centricity drawing on the brand's Swedish heritage.¹⁴ In May 2016 Ibrahimović returned for the V90 with a film about his rise from Malmö, set to a score by Hans Zimmer, and Volvo's release referred back to the 2014 campaign in which he recited the anthem.⁶ What began as a Swedish market film became a template for how the brand speaks about itself: global in ownership and reach, Swedish in voice.