Kia's "ham-stars" take top ad honors.
The incredibly popular Kia hamsters scored big in the 2011 Nielsen Automotive Advertising Award. The automaker’s latest campaign, which put the soul in the Kia Soul, was named Ad of the Year at a New York Auto Show news conference.
Spending on automotive advertising surged to a record $13 billion in the U.S. last year, carmakers putting about 4,400 different commercials in front of TV viewers in a bid to get potential customers into showrooms.
“Today’s TV viewer is drinking from a firehose,” said Iain Beavis, Nielsen Automotive’s executive vice president.
The problem, said Beavis, during an event attended by several thousand automotive executives and reporters, is that there are all too many ineffective ads that are “wasting your money.”
But there are plenty of others, he suggested, that deliver on the advertiser’s expectation, announcing winners in five categories of automotive TV spots.
- Ford took the Best Sales Event Campaign for its “Swap Your Ride 2” ads;
- The Detroit maker also landed a wind in the Best Green Ad category for its Fiesta Launch effort;
- Toyota picked up a trophy for its Spanish TV Ads of the Year; while
- Mercedes-Benz grabbed honors for best Luxury Auto Ads.
But it was Kia that took kudos for Ad of the Year, with Nielsen’s panel pointing to the catchy “This or That” TV spot, which used a hip-hop chant and images of the “ham-stars” celebrating the distinctive look and feel of the Kia Soul.
Sales of the boxy model have surged 50% so far this year, said Kia’s marketing chief, Michael Sprague, “because of these little guys.”