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Volvo Trucks: The Epic Split

Brands all over the world are trying to create branded content. Volvo did that with great success last month when they filmed a hamster drive their entire truck up a mountain.

Now, Volvo demonstrates the precision and directional stability of its dynamic steering by getting Jean-Claude Van Damme to carry out his famous split between two reversing Volvo FM trucks. Here, “dynamic steering” refers to the steering system helping the truck hold a steady line under motion. The video, since release, is reported to have already passed 7 million views.

A feature demo disguised as spectacle

The mechanism is as clean as it gets. Take a technical claim, steering stability under motion. Express it in one unmistakable image that needs no explanation. Two trucks moving backwards in sync, a human balancing point-to-point between them, and the steering system as the silent hero.

In global industrial and automotive marketing, the most reusable branded content is engineered proof that compresses a technical benefit into a single, legible visual.

By “engineered proof,” I mean a demonstration where the product capability is the only plausible explanation for what you see.

Why the internet did the media buy for them

This lands because it is instantly readable and instantly arguable. People share it to say “this is real.” People share it to say “this is impossible.” Either way, the product claim travels with the argument.

Extractable takeaway: If your product advantage is hard to feel in a 30-second explanation, translate it into a one-frame “impossible” moment. The real question is “what made that possible.” Then let the audience debate the stunt while your feature becomes the answer.

It also avoids the common branded-content trap of overstorytelling. The brand stays in the background, the demonstration stays in the foreground, and the audience does the meaning-making in their own words.

How to borrow this pattern without a movie star

Start with one feature you can prove. Pick a claim that can be demonstrated, not merely asserted.
Design for instant comprehension. If a still frame cannot tell the story, simplify the setup.
Make the proof self-contained. The audience should not need a voiceover to understand what is being tested.
Keep the brand restraint. Overbranding weakens believability. Let the test carry the persuasion.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Volvo’s “The Epic Split” demonstrating?

It is designed to demonstrate the precision and directional stability of Volvo’s dynamic steering by showing two reversing trucks holding a steady path while Jean-Claude Van Damme performs a split between them.

Why does this count as branded content instead of “just an ad”?

The primary value is the demonstration itself. The content is built to be watched and shared as a feat, with the product benefit embedded in the feat rather than delivered as a sales message.

What makes a stunt like this more shareable than a typical product film?

Instant readability plus high stakes. A single image communicates the premise, and the audience immediately wants to test whether it is real, which drives sharing and discussion.

How do you know the spectacle is actually proving the feature?

If the moment works as a still frame, stays understandable without voiceover, and the technical claim is the only plausible explanation, then the spectacle is doing real demonstration work, not just decoration.

How can smaller brands apply the same approach?

Reduce the ambition, not the logic. Prove one feature with one clear test, make it understandable in one glance, and remove anything that distracts from the proof.

Volvo Trucks: The Hamster Stunt

Brands everywhere are chasing branded content. Volvo Trucks picks a sharper route: it turns a technical feature into a spectacle by letting a hamster “steer” a Volvo FMX out of a quarry using Volvo Dynamic Steering.

The gag is simple to explain and hard to ignore. A hamster wheel is mounted to the steering wheel, and a precision driver handles pedals and safety while guiding the hamster with a carrot. The result feels like a ridiculous idea that somehow still proves something real.

When the product proof is the entertainment

Volvo Dynamic Steering is not an easy feature to dramatize in a way non-truck buyers want to watch. This film solves that by making “light steering” visually absurd, then grounding it with a credible live-test frame. A live-test frame is a visibly real setup that keeps the demonstration believable even when the idea is silly.

In global B2B and industrial marketing, this is a clean blueprint for turning an engineering benefit into mass-reach content without losing the proof.

The real question is whether your product proof can be watched by people who will never buy the thing.

B2B brands should bias toward demos that carry the claim in the image, not explanations that require patience.

Why the hamster works as a device

The hamster is not just cuteness. It is a proxy for “minimum force.” If a tiny animal can move the wheel, the viewer instantly understands the claim before any explanation arrives.

Extractable takeaway: If you can embody your benefit in a single visual proxy, the claim lands before the explanation.

That is the key branded-content trick: build an image that carries the message on its own, then let the technical story catch up afterwards.

Reported reach, and the deeper lesson

Volvo Trucks reports the film drew millions of views quickly, and industry press echoes that early momentum. The bigger point is not the number, it is the audience expansion. A feature aimed at fleet operators becomes something broadly watchable because the demonstration is designed like a story, not a spec.

What to copy from the hamster stunt

Turn the benefit into a visual impossibility that still stays true.
Keep the proof readable without narration, the image should carry the claim.
Use a live-test frame so entertainment does not undermine credibility.
Design a one-sentence retell, “a hamster steers a truck” is instant recall.

A few fast answers before you act

What feature is Volvo proving here?

Volvo Dynamic Steering, positioned as making the steering feel unusually light and precise even in demanding conditions.

Is the stunt “real” or purely visual effects?

It is presented as a controlled live test executed in a managed environment, with safety handled by a precision driver while the hamster influences the steering wheel.

Why does this count as strong branded content?

The product truth is inseparable from the story. The plot only works because the feature exists, which makes the content feel earned rather than bolted on.

What makes this approach effective for B2B brands?

It recruits non-buyers as viewers. When the demo is entertaining on its own, reach grows beyond the immediate purchase audience, while still reinforcing the proof.

What is the biggest risk when copying this pattern?

If the spectacle overwhelms the claim, people remember the stunt but not the feature. The visual must map cleanly to the benefit.

Google: Project Re:Brief

In 2011, Google partnered with four global brands in an advertising experiment. Their goal was simple. How can the ideas that defined the advertising industry in its infancy inspire a whole new generation of creatives and marketers?

So Google set out to re-imagine and remake some of the most iconic ad campaigns from the 1960s and 1970s with today’s technology, led by the same creative legends who made these campaigns.

Re-briefing classics with modern tools

The premise is a clean creative constraint. Here, a re-brief means keeping the original strategic promise while rewriting the assignment for today’s interfaces, devices, and distribution. Take an idea that became culturally famous in its original medium, then re-brief it as if you were building it for a digitally connected world. Not by “updating the look”, but by asking what the original strategy would do if it had today’s interfaces, devices, and distribution.

In global brand advertising, revisiting iconic work is a practical way to test which storytelling principles survive a major technology shift.

The four remakes

With that said, here are the results of the best of the old with the best of the new.

Re-imagining Coca-Cola’s “Hilltop”

Re-imagining Volvo’s “Drive it Like You Hate it”

Re-imagining Alka-Seltzer “I Can’t Believe I Ate That Whole Thing”

Re-imagining Avis “We Try Harder”

Why this format works for marketers

The real question is not whether old campaigns deserve a digital remake, but whether the original strategic idea still produces useful behavior in a connected medium. It forces discipline. You cannot hide behind novelty because the original idea is already known and already strong. That pushes the work to earn its keep through mechanics, not decoration. That works because a proven idea gives the technology a clear job to do, so the audience experiences the promise through behavior rather than explanation. When the core idea is clear, technology becomes an amplifier, not a replacement for strategy.

Extractable takeaway: If you want to explore new tech without producing gimmicks, start with an idea that already proved its emotional truth, then design one modern interaction that makes that truth more immediate.

How to borrow the approach without copying it

Pick one timeless promise. Strip it down until it fits in a single sentence.
Define one modern behavior. Sharing, scanning, tapping, responding, connecting. Build around one.
Make the mechanic do the explaining. The best remakes do not need a voiceover to justify the tech.
Keep a clear before and after. What stays from the original idea, and what changes because of the medium.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Project Re:Brief?

A Google-led experiment that re-imagines classic campaigns from the 1960s and 1970s using modern technology, guided by the original creative legends behind those ads.

Why remake old ads instead of creating new ones?

Because the originals provide a proven strategic baseline. You can see whether technology strengthens the core idea, or distracts from it.

What does “re-brief” actually mean in practice?

It means taking the original strategy and re-writing the assignment for a new media reality, then building a modern mechanic that expresses the same core promise.

What should a team learn from this kind of exercise?

That strong ideas travel across formats, and that the role of technology is to make the benefit more immediate, more personal, or more connected, not merely more complex.

How do you judge whether a modern remake is successful?

Look for clarity of the core idea, the usefulness of the interaction, and whether the mechanic creates behavior people would repeat or share, not just view.