Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Google Maps - Map It Like You Hate It


Project Re:Brief is a Google experiment to try and push the boundaries of what online advertising can be by re-imagining some famous ad campaigns from the past and updating them for the digital age.

In 1962 Amil Gargano and his team helped introduce Volvo to America with a simple yet powerful line that made the Swedish car brand stand out. The line was "Drive it like you hate it". The campaign achieved widespread acclaim within the industry and is heralded as one of the greatest pieces of automotive advertising in history.

Google has now worked with Amil to create a Volvo ad campaign. The new campaign follows Volvo driver Irv Gordon, who has owned his Volvo 46 years and driven it 2.9 million miles. As Gordon approaches the 3 million mile mark a live GPS data feed on Google Maps means viewers of the online ads can continue following Irv Gordon's story in real time and watch as his odometer ticks towards the 3 million mile mark.

The display ad also enables viewers to discover more about Irv’s destinations during the films, and prompts viewers to start their own journey at the end by combining location cues and a database of interesting drives in their area. These drives use Google Maps and the user's browser's location detection to show nearby destinations.

Here is a brief documentary of how Amil and Google came up with the new campaign for Volvo.

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