Selamat is Volvo
8. Brand Experience & Activation Kancils [8.5 Best launch/relaunch]
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Links:
Product/Service:
Automotive
Client:
Volvo
Brief:
For 99 years, Volvo built its reputation on life-saving engineering. Safety should have been its EV advantage: PwC’s eReadiness ASEAN Report 2025 ranked it Malaysians’ second biggest EV purchase factor (55%), behind price (69%).
Yet European rivals owned perceptions of luxury and innovation, while Chinese EV brands drew attention with technology, features and aggressive pricing. Safety had become a baseline expectation, eroding Volvo’s distinction.
Volvo was losing market share and relevance. By December 2025, its monthly EV sales had fallen to just 32 units, ranking 19th in Malaysia.
Against this backdrop, Volvo was launching the ES90, its safest EV ever, into an ultra-premium segment fixated on technology and price. Without changing the conversation, it risked going unnoticed.
Our challenge: launch the ES90 by making safety an active purchase driver, and make Volvo’s Swedish safety heritage culturally relevant to Malaysians again, restoring consideration.
Solution:
Our insight was hidden in Malaysian culture: “Selamat”.
On its own, it means safety. In everyday greetings, festive wishes and safe journeys, it expresses care, protection and well-being. From Selamat Pagi to Selamat Hari Raya and Selamat Jalan, one familiar word embodies everything Volvo stands for.
While any car brand could talk about safety, Volvo had spent 99 years earning its association with it. Volvo owns safety as a brand. Selamat expresses it as a cultural truth.
Our opportunity was to give Volvo a place within that meaning, connecting its Swedish safety heritage with a Malaysian expression used for generations.
Selamat = Safety = Volvo.
With Malaysians collectively encountering “Selamat” an estimated 690 million times daily, this association could turn everyday language into a powerful cultural reminder of Volvo, making its greatest strength familiar, meaningful and relevant again.
