Volvo Life Paint

"The Best Way to Survive a Crash is Not to Crash"

Every week in my marketing class at NYU, each student has to bring in an example for "the week in marketing." They have to come prepared to talk about something they've seen or experienced in marketing that they find quite clever or innovative or thought provoking, or all of the above. It's a fun exercise we do every week to kick off our class.

Last night one of the students brought in a video for Volvo Life Paint from the UK.

Volvo Life Paint is a spray-on adhesive that cyclists can use to be more visible at night to motorists and pedestrians. While it's invisible during the day, it glows at night to make cyclists instantly more noticeable and thereby more avoidable to traffic. Helping to prevent deadly accidents caused by poor visibility in the dark. With more and more cyclists on our city streets, it's becoming a bigger and bigger issue. Volvo is trying to make us all safer.

Of course it's not just for cyclists, the adhesive can be applied to anything and lasts about a week...when it can be easily washed off and reapplied.

We got into an interesting discussion as a class about why Volvo would introduce such a product. In essence this is a brilliant brand extension around its car safety positioning, extending beyond just keeping car drivers and passengers safe but also those around them who's safety could be also be jeopardized.

It's a classic use of a brand positioning to extend the brand. And when you look at the Volvo mission statement, then you'll see it's also a very natural extension:

"By 2020, no one will be killed or seriously injured by a new Volvo."

That's quite a promise. Innovations like Volvo Life Paint is one more step in the right direction.

What's your experience? JIM.