150 million views: Viral success for Swedish airbag for bicyclists

A video about Hövding, the Swedish-designed airbag for bicyclists, has in just a few days gone viral with more than 150 million views. It was London-based Viral Thread that on its own initiative made a video with clips about Hövding. The video has spread with the force of an avalanche and has started debates and threads with hundreds of thousands of comments around the world.

It all began on 14 September at noon, when Viral Thread uploaded a video they had made, based on a number of clips from Hövding’s own films. The video was published on Viral Thread’s website and on Facebook. Thereafter, the film begun to spread like wildfire, and videos about Hövding were also published on other major video channels, such as Unilad and The LAD Bible (16 million followers), with the result that the sharing and interest in the Swedish invention increased further.

“Our audience reacted to Hövding in a way that we had never seen before. It’s our most viewed video ever, with more than 100 million views. The video has also become our most shared one ever, with more than 1.8 million shares to friends and family. Our followers love the invention, and you can see from many comments that there is interest both in the technology and in getting your own airbag for bicycling,” says Jamie Bolding, founder and MD of Viral Thread.

Hövding is a discreet collar that the bicyclist wears around the neck. The collar contains a folded airbag, which is triggered and protects the head in the event of an accident. Hövding’s airbag for bicyclists was launched in 2011, after several years of research and development. It is now sold in a number of countries, has received top marks in bicycle helmet tests, won innovation prizes and also saved the heads of several hundreds of bicyclists in accidents. The company’s ambition is to achieve broader reach for the invention, and here the fantastic viral spread can contribute.

“Totally fantastic! We knew that our product is interesting and gripping. But this is incredible. The video ticks on, and every hour there are a couple more hundreds of thousands or million views and comments. Interest via email, telephone and in our social media isn’t hanging back either. The whole world wants to know more about Hövding,” says Fredrik Carling, MD of Hövding.

And pressure is high at the office in Sweden, which interested customers and distributors from around the world are contacting.

“All of us who work with Hövding are very committed and fired up by the product. It is cool to now see how millions of other persons are becoming committed and spreading the technology and idea of safe bicycling further,” says Fredrik Carling.

Hövding is currently sold in 140 shops in Sweden, and a further 500 or so around the world. Internationally, Hövding is sold in Denmark, Germany, UK, France and Japan, among other countries.

Watch the video that became a viral success here:

https://www.facebook.com/viralthread/videos/556482971208071/

For further information, please contact Fredrik Carling on +46 (0)40 236 868.