Why Volvo turned its CEO into a giant -- and a 'mini me'

Volvo has gotten nearly 2 million views on You Tube for a short film called "The Unboxing" that it made for the global debut of the EX30 small SUV.

While the end product is less than 6 minutes long, it took six, 12-hour days to shoot the film.

CEO Jim Rowan -- who stars in the film, taking on a number of roles as well as exaggerated sizes ranging from a giant to a "mini me" -- worked from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. on the last two days of the shoot to successfully complete his part.

"Jim invested a lot of time to make this great idea come to life," a Volvo spokesman told me.

The editing of the high-quality feature took even more time.

Volvo received the first raw edit the week after the shoot, around April 10, and continued tweaking and adjusting the film, which was created with the help of digital design and communications agency AKQA and London-based visual effects specialist The Mill, until May 31.  

'A weird one'

Rowan was presented the idea for the film late last year by Johan Larsson, Jenny Astrom, Andreas Malm and Oskar Johansson from the communication, brand and marketing team.

What was Rowan’s initial reaction?

"This was a weird one!" the spokesman remembers Rowan saying about the idea, but he meant that positively because he could envision what the final product would look like.

"He saw how excited we were about it and gave his full trust to the team to execute the idea to the fullest," the spokesman said.

When asked whether there were concerns that Rowan might face criticism because the film was not what one might expect from a Volvo CEO, the spokesman said the company felt a more playful tone was needed for a car that would target a much younger audience.

"From Day 1 of filming, we were fully confident it would work," the spokesman said. "We could all see it come to life."