SKF turns a 20% energy loss into a 1919 sales story

SKF is reaching back into its archive to sell a technology that is almost impossible to see. The industrial giant has used AI to recreate actor Greta Garbo, more than a hundred years after she appeared in a campaign linked to the company, as the face of its magnetic bearings initiative.

The product itself is pure engineering: magnetic bearings hold a rotating shaft in a magnetic field, removing physical contact. That means less friction, less wear, less maintenance and greater equipment availability. SKF points to a number that frames the entire pitch – around 20% of global energy is used just to overcome friction in machinery and industrial processes. The bearings are being aimed at data centres, cooling systems, semiconductor manufacturing and other energy-intensive settings.

A familiar face makes an invisible product feel real

There is a reason a dead Hollywood icon is doing the talking. Psychologists call it the familiarity heuristic: when a purchase is hard to evaluate, people lean on what they already recognise. A familiar face borrows trust, makes the story easier to process and gives a technical B2B campaign something emotional to carry it.

Rickard Gustafson, SKF’s president and CEO, framed the problem as adoption, not engineering: the bearings “eliminate friction entirely,” but the company still needs “new ways to lower the barriers to adoption and make the technology more accessible.”

The 1919 pricing model is the sleeper move

The more interesting behavioural detail may be the payment plan. SKF first used the idea in 1919: customers could fund an investment through the energy savings the technology generated. The company is now bringing that principle back for its newest efficiency offer.

This is not a discount. It is a reframe. Instead of asking a buyer to find new capital for an unfamiliar product, the offer redirects money the buyer was already losing to friction. The cost is presented as a hidden operating loss, not a new line item. That is a classic way to defeat status quo bias: keep the familiar framing, change what the money is doing.

What the archive can and cannot do

• Use heritage as a trust signal, not decoration. Garbo works here because she is tied to the company’s history and the story has family approval.
• Reframe the price as a loss already being paid. Energy savings turn a big upfront spend into a self-funding decision.
• Pair novelty with familiarity. AI recreations can feel risky, so the 1919 model gives buyers a known financial anchor.

Per Nilsson, SKF’s global head of communication and brand, summed up the logic:

“Sometimes, we need to look back to find the best way forward.”

The campaign was developed with Greta Garbo’s family and Harriet Brown & Company Inc., which matters because AI resurrections can just as easily slip into unease as into nostalgia.

Source: Afaqs!