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Renault Espace Turns 40 With a Musical Journey Across Worlds
Renault's 'Voyage in Espace' is a 2025 automotive film campaign created by Publicis Conseil that launches the new Renault Espace full hybrid E-Tech vehicle by reframing a 40-year legacy of family mobility as an emotionally charged journey across extraordinary landscapes, set to a reimagined version of Desireless's classic anthem 'Voyage Voyage.'
The campaign launched on social media on 20 March 2025, as reported by publicisconseil.fr, reaching audiences in France and across multinational worldwide markets simultaneously. It marks a significant creative moment for the brand: the Renault Espace first entered the market in 1984, and this fifth-generation model arrives more than four decades later as a full hybrid offering with capacity for up to seven passengers, according to cbnews.fr. The campaign's timing places it at the intersection of automotive heritage and contemporary electrification strategy, using the Espace's legacy not as nostalgia but as a living argument for relevance.
The film positions the new Espace as a vehicle built for shared experience rather than mere transportation. Forests, deserts, and expansive open landscapes serve as visual counterpoints to the intimacy of the car's interior, reinforcing Publicis Conseil's intent to connect the original 1984 positioning of the Espace as a 'car for living' with the expectations of a modern, hybrid-aware audience, as noted by France Publicisgroupe. With orders opening from 8 April 2025 and dealer test drives beginning June 2025, according to cbnews.fr, the campaign functions as both brand narrative and commercial catalyst across the French market and beyond.
Renault confronts a European MPV and crossover segment under significant competitive pressure in 2025. The seven-seat family vehicle category in France and across broader European multinational worldwide markets has been challenged by rivals including Stellantis-owned Citroën, whose SpaceTourer and Berlingo families anchor the practical family transport space, and Volkswagen, whose Touran and Tiguan Allspace directly contest the Espace's positioning. Against these competitors, Renault and Publicis Conseil elected to lead with emotional resonance rather than technical specification — a deliberate strategic choice for a vehicle that competes as much on lifestyle identity as on powertrain data.
The strategic rationale reflects a broader shift in the automotive category. Global light-vehicle sales are projected at 91.7 million units in 2025, according to S&P Global Mobility, with market growth increasingly concentrated in electrified vehicles and SUV-crossover segments. In France and across European markets, hybrid adoption is accelerating as regulatory and consumer pressure intensifies, making the E-Tech hybrid badge both a product fact and a cultural signal. Publicis Conseil's approach treats that signal as a creative opportunity rather than a compliance checkbox.
The decision to build the campaign around music — specifically a reworked version of Desireless's 'Voyage Voyage' performed by The Hybsters featuring Adé, as reported by france.publicisgroupe.com — grounds the Espace's hybrid debut in collective memory. In France especially, 'Voyage Voyage' carries cross-generational cultural weight, functioning as an instant emotional connector between the car's 1984 origins and its 2025 reinvention. The Hybsters' name itself doubles as a product pun, layering meaning for audiences already attuned to hybrid automotive discourse.
The film's creative execution rests on a pairing of expansive visual language with intimate human observation. Director Lukas Tielke, working with director of photography Denis Guth and production company Quad, constructs a series of landscape tableaux — forests, deserts, open terrain — through which the Renault Espace moves as both protagonist and witness, according to thecreativesroom.com. The production approach favours scale contrasted against interior warmth, making the vehicle's seven-passenger capacity feel less like a specification and more like a promise of shared experience.
Creative direction came from Marcelo Vergara, with art direction by Rick Andersen and copywriting by Karl Guihard and Kevin Pochic, as documented by publicisconseil.fr. The campaign's creative leadership sits under Marco Venturelli, Global CCO and CEO of Leo as well as CEO and CCO of Publicis Conseil, whose dual role across the Publicis network gives the work access to both global strategic thinking and French market specificity. Executive production was managed by Karen Barel, with line production by Claudia Traegger and agency producers Caroline Bouillet and Patricia Lucas, per thecreativesroom.com.
Post-production was handled by Prodigious Paris, a Publicis-owned facility that ensures creative consistency across markets as the campaign extends from France into multinational worldwide distribution. The music arrangement — the reworked 'Voyage Voyage' by The Hybsters featuring Adé — functions as the film's emotional spine rather than its soundtrack, structuring the edit's rhythm and reinforcing the campaign's central thesis: that travel, in the Espace, is never merely physical. The result is a film that earns its emotional register through craft precision rather than sentiment alone.
No verified performance data for 'Voyage in Espace' is publicly available at the time of this analysis. The campaign launched on 20 March 2025, with orders for the new Renault Espace full hybrid E-Tech opening on 8 April 2025, according to cbnews.fr, meaning measurable commercial impact — order volumes, test-drive registrations, or brand lift figures — has not yet entered the public domain. What can be assessed is the structural architecture of the campaign's effectiveness.
The decision to anchor a product launch film to a culturally embedded piece of French music — a reworked 'Voyage Voyage' — is a high-leverage creative move in France, where the original Desireless track commands genuine cross-generational recognition. The film's simultaneous deployment across France and multinational worldwide markets suggests Publicis Conseil designed the emotional core to travel without localisation, a structural economy that supports efficient global reach. The seven-seat, full-hybrid positioning of the Espace addresses a documented growth segment, with electrified vehicles and crossover-SUV formats identified by S&P Global Mobility as the primary drivers of 2025 global light-vehicle market momentum.
Clapboard rates 'Voyage in Espace' at 57 out of 100. The score reflects strong creative craftsmanship and strategic clarity but suggests the film's ambitions are not fully resolved — the balance between heritage emotion and product conviction occasionally favours atmosphere over argument. For a vehicle asking audiences to reconsider the MPV category in a hybrid era, stronger product-specific storytelling could deepen its commercial impact without sacrificing the cinematic quality that defines its best moments.
'Voyage in Espace' is a 2025 film campaign by Publicis Conseil launching the new Renault Espace full hybrid E-Tech. It uses a reimagined version of Desireless's 'Voyage Voyage,' performed by The Hybsters featuring Adé, to connect the Espace's 40-year heritage with its fifth-generation hybrid reinvention for French and global audiences.
Lukas Tielke directed the film. He worked alongside director of photography Denis Guth and production company Quad. Creative direction was led by Marcelo Vergara under Marco Venturelli, CEO and CCO of Publicis Conseil, with post-production completed by Prodigious Paris, as documented by publicisconseil.fr and thecreativesroom.com.
Renault launched 'Voyage in Espace' on 20 March 2025, according to publicisconseil.fr. Orders for the new Espace full hybrid E-Tech opened on 8 April 2025, with dealer test drives beginning in June 2025, as reported by cbnews.fr, making the film a direct commercial trigger aligned to the vehicle's retail rollout.
The campaign uses a reworked version of Desireless's 'Voyage Voyage,' performed by The Hybsters featuring Adé. As reported by france.publicisgroupe.com, the track anchors the film emotionally in French cultural memory while the performer name — The Hybsters — serves as a deliberate reference to the Espace's new hybrid E-Tech powertrain.
Clapboard rates 'Voyage in Espace' at 57 out of 100. The score acknowledges strong cinematic craft and strategic use of musical heritage but indicates the film's balance between emotional atmosphere and product-specific conviction leaves room for greater commercial sharpness, particularly given the Espace's competitive positioning in the hybrid family vehicle segment.
Publicis Conseil created the campaign for Renault. The Paris-based agency, led by Marco Venturelli as CEO and CCO, handled creative strategy, film production coordination, and global distribution. The campaign ran in France and across multinational worldwide markets from March 2025, as confirmed by publicisconseil.fr and france.publicisgroupe.com.
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