Client: Volvo Construction Equipment
My role:
Ideation
Research
Concept creation
Facilitation
Pitch preparation and pitching
Volvo would like to move away from diesel machinery towards more sustainable solutions in quarry and mining industry to contribute to the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Agenda and to have a zero admissions fleet by 2050.
Problems
- People involved in the industry don’t seem to have faith in electric machinery being powerful enough.
- Replacing all machinery is expensive and hard to do at once
- Finding ways to power electric machinery in remote locations is a challenge not yet solved
Target group analysis
Quarry workers have long hard work days and we can quite safely assume that they are not interested in spending any more time outside working hours learning about something that they don’t believe in when they could be doing something they love with the people they love instead.
At the same time quarry workers spend the majority of their days alone in their vehicles doing quite monotonous and potentially dangrous work. They cannot afford to be distracted and yet might crave some entertainment.
Our solution
Here enters our concept of not only moving mountains but moving minds.
After considering some alternatives, our whole team felt that the best solution was changing perceptions via edutainment during work with podcast Ear to the Ground/Örat mot marken in Swedish
Podcast research
As this project was a part of a 3-day hackathon including briefings and presentations, we had very limited time to research, ideate and prepare for pitching. We did look into other podcasts for the same target audience and general podcast statistics which all lead us to believe that podcast might be a great solution – especially in the Nordics where we suggest piloting.
Our podcast would be very easy to execute and affordable for Volvo, requiring minimal equipment and human resources, enabling them to strengthen their image as the experts in the industry. It would also allow them to introduce their growing electric machinery park to target audience, awaking curiosity, reducing some fears and supporting change management. And being a hands free audio solution with increasing popularity among working people, this podcast should fit very well the target audience’s needs and wants.
Podcast concept planning
Episodes would be recorded in Volvo vehicles together with:
- Influencial people from the industry to debunk myths and talk about history of the industry
- Quarry workers themselves who get to try these machines out (which we confidently encourage based on Volvo’s own insight that usually people who have tried their electric machinery do not want to go back to diesel due to lower noise and higher efficiency).
- Ergonomics and mental welfare specialists and more
Predicted outcome
I believe that once the majority of quarry workers are on board with the planned change of going electric or even advocating for it, it would also make the change easier for the decision makers.
Result
We got a lot of positive feedback from Volvo representatives for the concept of moving not only mountains but minds and we hope that Volvo makes this happen.
