Hyundai and Kia kick off big marketing programs in FIFA World Cup
Hyundai will kick off a major ad campaign with the start of soccer, er, football's big event, the World Cup.
Throughout the world, football (soccer to us) is more than just a game with eleven participants punting a ball around a well-manicured green — or pitch or dusty field. It is a nationalistic, often ethnic, competition rivaling century-long conflicts on fields of honor. The Wall Street Journal has called it geopolitical football.
The 32 best football teams in the world – determined by elimination – divided into eight groups begin play today in a long and hard-fought battle for the coveted FIFA World Cup, the Cupa de Mondial.
Millions upon millions upon millions will be tuned to their television sets as the matches are played. And it’s these vast numbers that advertisers of any worldwide brand are anxious to reach with commercials and promotions. For the Korean brands Hyundai and Kia this is a ready-made audience for their respective brands.
Of the two related Korean brands, Hyundai has become an “Official Automotive Partner of the 2010 FWC South Africa,” with Kia’s participation more limited. The event is a massive undertaking befitting its worldwide nature, and all games are televised live, with repeat-casts on the web, from the ten different venues. Over 1 million applications for tickets have been received from soccer mad fans. The parties have already been running for weeks.
Cumulatively the number of viewers is in the hundreds of millions, so, even for those agape at the power of the recent Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl, in terms of appeal, audience size and advertising together, they cannot match the power of the World Cup.
Both brands have developed extensive out-of-the-U.S. media advertising plans because, let’s face it, the sport is not that popular here. But they will have ads on ESPN broadcasts. Around the rest of the world, both Hyundai and Kia are represented in every nation in the finals and those in the elimination series. That’s true use of the power of football and television to promote the brand. And of course there’s an extensive list of promotions for Kia and Hyundai, the top five highlights of the extensive benefits of the sponsorship are:
- Use of all FIFA (Fédération de International Football Association) World Cup assets including logos, official mascot, trademarks and venue displays.
- Designation as the official automotive partner of World Cup in every nation
- Vehicle use at qualifying games
- Participation in all FIFA events, both amateur and professional worldwide leading up to and following the World Cup
- Special vehicle displays at each of the ten stadium venues in South Africa
- Prominent signage at every venue and in every host city
To get a feel of Hyundai’s instore promotions around the world Click Here.
Kia has followed the Ap-movement for iPhones with a series of animated features using the Soul as a player. Click Here.
Challenge of the week: Mini vs Porsche. Excuse me.
An unexpected challenger tries to take on Porsche.
Leafing through last Sunday’s New York Times I was surprised to see a full page color ad from Mini in which the company challenged Porsche to a race. Mini’s can be very fast – there was one on the Silverstone racetrack last year – and are always looking for edgy, often off-beat ads.
But then there’s this video gauntlet in Porsche’s face thrown by Mini’s manager, Jim McDowell Click Here, and the usual assortment of Face Book and other social media sightings. As this is being written rumor has it Porsche turned down the challenge. But Mini got a lot of publicity for it.
Infiniti’s commits to five year run for brush logo
Infiniti announces an unusually long commitment to its new ad campaign.
In an era when automotive brands are switching agencies with little regard for commitment or constancy, Infiniti has announced its “Way of Infiniti” ad campaign – featuring a brush stroke shape that evolves into the brand’s products – will run for at least five years. That’s a lifetime in today’s automotive agency days. Obviously Infiniti is pleased with their agency’s work.
When I asked Rob Schwartz, the chief creative officer at Infiniti’s advertising house, TBWAChiatDay, about the brush stroke logo, during a telephone conversation this week, he said, “The design is a “Shodo” a Japanese term signifying an economy of ink and paper which has become a visual gesture for Infiniti’s luxury category vehicles.” Schwartz added that, “Consumers recognize luxury brands by their graphic logos including Gucci’s “Gs”, Chanel’s “Cs” and Louis Vuitton’s “LVs” we believe the Infiniti Shodo will achieve this recognition in luxury automobiles.”
The agency is using Shodos as creative expressions for features of Infiniti including air conditioning, safety, handling, sound and quality. The brush stroke shown here is representative of the new Infiniti M sedan.
Bottom line: Chevy vs Chevrolet
Who really cares or gives a damn about what it’s called or unfortunately the brand itself. Hell, next some middle management minion will change the bow-tie to a cravat? More importantly where was Joel Ewanick, the former Hyundai ad exec and now GM’s Chief Marketing Officer for North America, in this silly scenario?