How we delivered Volvo’s keynote to the world’s biggest trade show

New concept for the Volvo Group in Las Vegas

When the world’s biggest technology trade show needed a headline speaker, they turned to the Volvo Group – who in turn turned to Spoon. The assignment? To transform a keynote speaking appearance into an experience beyond the ordinary.

The challenge

Giving a keynote address at the CES in Las Vegas is a bit like playing the lead role on Broadway – everyone is watching you and there are no second chances. The Volvo Group needed a concept that could carry its entire presence: before, during and after the show.

The presentation would have to engage both the physical audience in place and thousands of digital viewers worldwide – for a full 60 minutes. This would not be done on just any screen, but on (dare we say) one of the world’s largest screens, with dimensions of 13,000*1280 pixels. This put enormous demands on all the material we produced.

The insight

At a time when everyone is talking about the future, the Volvo Group is in a unique position. It has been building it for almost a century. Using that insight as a foundation, we were able to create a powerful, visionary and reassuring message: We know these are tough times and there is much that needs to be solved, but we are taking our responsibility – “We’ve got this”.

Because who can say that with more credibility than the company that literally keeps the world moving? Volvo is – and has always been – “Confidently Ahead”. Using the concept of Confidently Ahead, we delivered a show that made the entire CES hold its breath – in total darkness.

The solution

The concept shows how the Volvo Group is leading the transition to a sustainable future. It’s not about grand promises, but about concrete evidence of leadership through innovation and experience. To bring the concept to life at CES, we developed a story where each part reinforced this message.

We created a visual world that was synonymous with confidence by deliberately choosing a slower pace in film, slide shows and graphics. This is because being ‘confident’ means trusting that what you are showing is strong enough to hold everyone’s attention. Instead of using fast clips, we produced animated still images with a parallax effect, where different layers of the image were separated to create a sense of depth and movement. In the middle of the keynote, a VR presentation was also carried out, produced by Edelman/DVA.

Throughout the entire process, we acted as a sounding board for the Volvo Group and helped them establish strong narrative flows through the keynote speeches, which included Martin Lundstedt, Volvo CEO and Ebba Busch, Sweden’s Minister of Energy and Industry.

We pushed the principle of “show don’t tell” to keep the audience engaged. For example, we staged a power outage on stage, in the middle of CEO Martin Lundstedt’s speech, to exemplify the vital role the Volvo Group plays in society. When darkness fell over the audience, and the viewers’ screens went black, they literally experienced how important it is to keep the wheels of the world turning.

The result

Las Vegas audiences are used to world-class entertainment. Now, we’re not saying we were at the same level as Celine Dion or Adele, but the cheers in the packed Mandalay Bay Convention Center after the performance were deafening.

Of course, this was mainly due to the brilliant speeches from Volvo’s executives and politicians – but we also know that our visuals lifted the whole event to another level. Since CES, Volvo has noticed increased interest from the media. The same could be said about Minister of Energy and Business Ebba Busch, whose speech went viral. A column in the business channel EFN stated that the keynote speech was simply a “success for Volvo”. We agree!

Scroll down to see the full CES presentation.