Volvo Steals the Playbook on Super Bowl Marketing

Coming into Super Bowl week, the Volvo marketing team is pulling off another trick play.

The company has promised to give out $2 million of its Swedish machines if anyone scores a safety in the big ball game Sunday. Safety, of course, is the brand’s north star. The message is a bit incongruous with a quarterback getting mauled by car-sized humans, but you get the point. 

To qualify, fans will have to kit out their dream Volvo on the company’s site before the game; winners — if there are any — will be chosen at random.

These game gimmicks — so-called trigger promotions in marketingspeak — are increasingly common and almost always savvy.

Volvo probably won’t have to make good on the deal. There have only been nine safeties in Super Bowl history, putting the chance at just north of 17%. Though safeties are getting more common; almost half of the Super Bowl safeties were scored since 2009.

Read More at Bloomberg