Global engine platform launch for Volvo Trucks

This one was for the petrol heads

In April 2025, the very first digital post-its appeared on our Miro board for a new project. Fast forward to May 2026, and those ideas grew into a full global launch campaign for Volvo Trucks' brand-new engine platform.

Driving the narrative inward

If you look at truck launches from recent years, they usually follow a purely aesthetic formula. Sleek lines, glossy tracking shots and a heavy dose of product design. But this time, the revolution was entirely under the hood. And to truly connect with the target audience, we needed to steer away from the standard corporate showcase and shift gears toward a more emotional and creative concept.

The hunt for engine scapes

For the first phase of the launch, we wanted to tell the story from two sides: what's happening inside the new engine, and what it feels like to be the one driving it. For months, our digital arts team was on the hunt for engine scapes: abstract, cinematic landscapes built entirely from the internal mechanics of the engine itself.

Our ultimate goal was to create a landscape so ambiguous that it made the viewer wonder what they were actually looking at. We digitally rigged the truck, built every single texture from scratch and even went as far as simulating the precise way dust kicks up when the truck takes a sharp turn.

Visuals this immersive needed a soundtrack to match, so we partnered with Banjo, a professional sound atelier from Valencia, for a deep, layered soundscape that made the whole thing land even harder.

When hope turns into reality in a Swedish studio

Following the digital first phase, it was time to step into the real world. We travelled to the official Volvo Trucks studio in Gothenburg for a traditional studio shoot. The goal was to capture the ultimate hero shots of the physical engine, which was suspended from chains right there in the studio. We challenged the photographers to only use the truck's iconic V-lights and no extra, artificial lighting.

And then, a moment of pure collaborative magic happened.

In the early stages of production (and even back during the pitch) we secretly hoped the ending of the CGI movie and the studio shots of the second phase would match. Luckily (and funnily) enough, the team at Volvo Trucks themselves came up with the exact same idea.

A BBC job through and through

Getting a glimpse into the daily life of an owner-operator, delving deep into the technical aspects of a new engine platform and linking that raw power back to exactly what a premium brand like Volvo stands for: This project was a BBC job through and through.

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