Packed Pavilions Drive Volvo Experience at the Volvo Ocean Race stopovers
25/06/2009
The purpose-built pavilion promoting the Volvo brand and its products at Volvo Ocean Race stopovers has proved a massive attraction all around the world with an estimated three-quarters-of-a-million people passing through between the 11 participating ports.
It is as large as it is impressive, the two tier structure that is the Volvo Experience Pavilion at the Volvo Ocean Race, dwarfed only by the adjacent masts of the Volvo Open 70 racing yachts in dock.
The ground floor is packed full of products reflecting both partners, Volvo Cars and Volvo Group, from the giant cutaway of the flagship of the Volvo Trucks fleet, the Volvo FH 16 to a Volvo Construction Equipment cab, the Volvo S60 concept car and another cutaway, this time the iron-clad safety features of the new Volvo XC60 car.
The first floor affords guests and VIPs a panoramic view over the Volvo Ocean Race village, used morning, noon and evening for Volvo customers, clients, journalists and staff, presentations and receptions with Volvo Ocean Race shippers and crew affording guests an insight to ‘Life at the Extreme.’
“There are two identical structures, which leapfrog each other as they travel around the world, each taking around 10 days to set-up,” explains Karin Bäcklund, Volvo Ocean Race director at Volvo Cars, adding, “We have fused Scandinavian and maritime design themes into the Volvo Experience Pavilion and it has made quite an impact around the world.”
So much so that over 250,000 visited the Volvo Experience Pavilion in Alicante where the Volvo Ocean Race started in October 2008 and such was the interest in Cochin in India that the structure had to be temporarily closed as visitors queued for several hours to get inside.
“Volvo Group has been very pleased with the public reaction to the Volvo Experience Pavilion, with huge interest in out products but also in the hands-on interactive pods we have created to afford visitors a fee, quite literally, of the dynamics of transportation,” says Sven Östeberg of Volvo Group, adding, “We are looking at a record number of guests.”
Volvo recruited a team of eight ‘product specialists’ to host the Volvo Experience Pavilion and it has been a global odyssey for the four men and four women with Volvo’s global public image in their hands.
“It has been quite an experience for us all,“ says team leader Jonas Eriksson, adding, “Our in-depth training at each of the Volvo business areas has certainly paid dividends.”
He continues, “The biggest eye-opener for me has been how different countries and cultures have interacted with the Volvo Experience, for example, in Alicante, there was massive general interest whereas in Cochin it was Volvo Buses that caught the eye, in Boston it was Volvo cars.
“And, like the crews competing in the Volvo Ocean Race, we have adopted a real sense of teamwork, which has been the basis of what has been a hugely enjoyable – and successful – experience.”
www.volvooceanrace.org / www.volvocars.com / www.volvo.com