See how Volvo made a song from car noises with YouTube creator

In an effort to market its new hybrid vehicle to younger and more diverse buyers, Volvo is using a YouTuber for the first time to create a beat using the vehicle’s sounds.

For “The Sounds of the Volvo XC60 Plug-in Hybrid” campaign, the brand partnered with Andrew Huang to plug its XC60 Recharge Plug-in Hybrid. Huang is a partially deaf musician with over 2 million subscribers who will “make a beat of literally anything,” according to one of his videos.

The Volvo campaign debuted this week and will run through the end of the year. It takes the form of a music video, created by Huang and his production partner Keeley Bumford (a musician and producer also known as Dresage) that is made up solely of sounds including the car’s doors opening and closing and noises from its vent controls and buttons.

The campaign was created with agencies Mindshare and Grey. It was also produced with entertainment company Ace Content. Along with the brand’s own YouTube page, creative will run on Huang’s and Bumford’s YouTube channels along with their Twitter and Instagram accounts. The brand declined to share media spend.

The aim of the spot is to reach a younger, multicultural consumer “who may not have considered a luxury SUV before,” said Leigh Moynihan, Volvo’s head of marketing, in a statement. “Knowing this audience cares most about design and tech, we tapped into the creative talents of Andrew Huang and Dresage and let them create content that shows off the XC60 in a new way that appeals to their broad audiences.” 

“I was excited to work with Volvo Cars USA on this campaign to make the new design and features of the XC60 Recharge Plug-in Hybrid come to life,” said Huang in a statement. “Using the car to create a catchy beat made this such a fun project.”

Volvo said it will use Google's analytics platform to track viewer reaction to the XC60 video, which will help it fine-tune production marketing.

"It's an opportunity to see where consumer interest lies," Moynihan said. "We have plans to test out whether or not consumers are responding more favorably to the design aspects of the car versus technology."

The XC60, which competes with the Audi Q5, BMW X3 and Mercedes-Benz GLC, accounted for more than a third of Volvo's U.S. sales last year, or 41,582 vehicles.

Other marketing efforts using everyday product sounds have included Jaguar’s efforts to make art from the noise of its car exhaust in 2017 and GE creating a soundtrack out of its engines, turbines and medical equipment in 2014.

Automotive News contributed to this story.