Volvo Cars’ bestselling XC60 crossover has a problem: Its customer base is the oldest of any Volvo model.
To introduce the midsize crossover to younger buyers, the Swedish automaker collaborated with YouTuber Andrew Huang. The Canadian content creator produced a video that is a soundtrack of vehicle sounds — clicking seat belts, blinking headlights, shutting doors and swiveling mirrors — blended into a techno track.
The video also serves as product marketing, highlighting the vehicle’s swipe-based sunroof controls, Google-based infotainment system and air purifier.
Volvo Cars USA marketing boss Leigh Moynihan said market research shows XC60 shoppers are design-focused and technology-focused.
“We wanted an opportunity to see if we could create a new piece for XC60 that could introduce our audience in a new and engaging way to the different features of the car,” Moynihan told Automotive News.
Moynihan said Huang’s 2.3 million YouTube channel subscribers give Volvo access to a demographic target market of 25- to 44-year-olds. Huang’s subscribers are between 25 and 34 years old.
The collaboration includes a behind-the-scenes video in which Huang and producer Keeley Bumford show viewers how they “made a banger out of car sounds.”
“The trunk sounded really dynamic because it’s one of those hydraulic closing things,” Bumford said in the video. “So we decided that it made sense to close the beat with the closing of the trunk.”