Volvo and Avicii are both famous and both Swedish. So Avicii was a logical choice for the next installment of Forsman & Bodenfors’ Made by Sweden campaign for Volvo.
Avicci is also hot right now in the music world. He connects Volvo to a younger audience.
The campaign, New Beginning, celebrates the Swedish heritage that Volvo and Avicii share. At its centre is Avicii’s remix of the Nina Simone’s 1964 song, Feeling Good, with vocals by Audrey Mae.
“In the past six years I have been on a never-ending tour, apart for the last nine months during my time-out. I did around 325 shows in a year with traveling on top of that. It couldn’t continue. In the end I had to re-evaluate my situation and change my lifestyle. Sweden is an important place to me, it’s where I gather my strength and energy with family and friends. This whole process of re-evaluation and renewal is what Volvo encouraged me to visualise in the video. I think we did a great job together,” Avicii commented.
The song Feeling Good was initially picked as a proposal by Volvo Cars.
“I’ve loved the song for a long time. It’s one of the best songs ever written. It’s just timeless to me. I’ve been a big fan of Nina Simone, Etta James and that kind of sound for a very long time. So when I found out that was the song that Volvo Cars wanted in the music video I was really excited and happy to do something with it. I wanted to create something new, and at the same time stay true to the original,” Avicii added
Like the Made by Sweden launch film, Vintersaga,the 4 minute video was directed by Swede, Gustav Johansson. Vintersaga recently won Gold for Cinematography Craft at the Art Directors Club Awards.
New Beginning was produced by Scandinavian production company, New Land. It follows 25-year old Stockholm-born Avicii (born Tim Bergling) as he travels through Sweden in his new Volvo XC90. It was shot in Stockholm and other places of personal significance to Avicii, such as Österlen, and also features members of his family and close friends.
“We were delighted to have the opportunity to work so closely with Avicii on this campaign, as it reflects something that is happening for both Avicii and for the Volvo Cars brand. We are entering a new era – a New Beginning, as we have called the campaign. We have gone through several years of intense investment and we have refined our brand. The result is a new, more nimble and customer-responsive Volvo Cars,” Alain Visser, senior vice president sales, marketing & customer service at Volvo Car Group, commented.
“It was important to me that if we did something together it would be new and unique, that it was a longer term global cooperation from both sides and that it would completely align with our brands in both a credible and creative way,” remarked Ash Pournouri, founder of At Night Management, who has helped bring Avicii to worldwide acclaim. “Everything you see in the video is true to the Avicii brand. Volvo Cars’ lead tagline is ‘A New Beginning’ and that is a theme we share with Volvo.”
