Volvo Trucks continues with its ground-breaking marketing initiatives, this time through reality TV with the hip-hop soul artist Mapei. During a nine-day road-trip through Europe, she will record a new music video with director Liza Minou Morberg. To help them, they have a Volvo truck filled with props and one of the world’s best drivers, Jens Karlsson from ‘The Epic Split’. The result can be seen in the upcoming YouTube TV series ‘Reality Road’ starting on Thursday June 11th.
“With ‘Reality Road’ we want to show the strength of our service offerings,” says Per Nilsson, Director Public Relations Volvo Trucks. “For a truck to stay on the road, the services that are linked to it are just as important as the vehicle itself. At the same time, we want to produce TV entertainment that attracts a wider audience and – as far as I know – no other company has used reality TV for marketing purposes.”
During the series, Mapei and the director Liza Morberg, record a music video for Mapei’s new song „millionwaystolive“, which will be featured on Mapei’s album due to be released later this year.
“I love to travel and to have the opportunity to meet new people and cultures. And that is also what „millionwaystolive“ is about – being on the road and having the freedom to travel. It is the ultimate song for a road trip,” says Mapei.
Assisting them is Jens Karlsson, a Swedish truck driver for over 28 years and precision driver in Volvo Trucks’ commercials ‘The Epic Split’ and ‘The Ballerina Stunt’, plus Sushi a miniature schnauzer and a specially-designed Volvo FH.
Over the course of nine days, they travel all the way from Sweden to Italy – a journey of more than 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mls).
Driver, Jens Karlsson says “My task in the series is to drive the truck and make sure that the trip is carried out as safely as possible and also, to show what working as a truck driver really means. I have been on camera before, but this was really something completely different. Previously, I just drove and didn’t have to talk in front of the camera.”
In addition to seeing Volvo Trucks’ services being put to the test in various ways, you can follow Mapei as she gets acquainted with and challenges the trucking world. Among other things, we see her when she performs with drag show artists on a truck ferry to Poland, arranges a spontaneous gig in the suburbs of Paris and accompanies a two-wheel Volvo FH stunt in Berlin.
