Turning a product launch into a cultural moment requires more than scale – it requires substance. In the latest episode of Join The Ride ➔ Brands in Motion, BYD’s Kate Hornstein shares how that thinking is shaping the brand’s approach.
“I think a lot of times we strive for the aspirational and we forget about who the actual customer is.”
This is a lesson that has stayed with Kate Hornstein, Chief Marketing Officer at BYD Australia and New Zealand, throughout her career – and one that continues to shape how the fast-growing EV brand approaches marketing today.
In her episode of Join The Ride ➔ Brands in Motion from Uber Advertising, Hornstein was interviewed by Michael Levine, Head of APAC at Uber Advertising, to unpack how BYD is navigating one of the most complex and fast-moving categories in the market.
For Hornstein, that lesson comes to life most clearly when the stakes are high – there’s no better example of that than when the brand had to launch its Shark in Australia. With one in every five vehicles sold in Australia being a ute, the pressure was on for BYD to make an impact.
Rather than defaulting to a traditional launch, the team grounded their approach in a deeper understanding of both the customer and the category to ensure the brand showed up in a way that felt credible.
The launch kicked off with BYD bringing a group of journalists and content creators to China to test drive the Shark, followed by a launch in Broken Hill.
Hornstein says: “We chose Broken Hill because it has a fantastic history associated with the mining industry in this country and allowed us to draw some parallels to our own battery technology.
“We also wanted to bring in some of the best Australian talent, and had Daryl Braithwaite perform under the stars off the back of a ute. More than that being an iconic Australian moment, we powered the entire performance with our Vehicle-to-Load technology.”
For Hornstein, the launch wasn’t just about scale or spectacle, it was about demonstrating the brand’s proposition in a way that made sense to customers, showing how the Shark belonged in the Australian ecosystem.
She says: “It was really about making sure we celebrated the brand and its position in this market in so many different ways. It ended up being a fantastic moment in our brand’s history.”
In recent times the global fuel crisis has thrown the benefits of EV technology into stark relief and Hornstein acknowledged that while there has been an acceleration in demand for BYD, helping the customer remain at the centre of her strategy.
She explains: “This isn’t an opportunity to grab market share more so than it is to support people who are struggling with the rising cost of living. All we can do is present our offering, and if they’re in the market for a car, fantastic.
“Our messaging has been really tailored to solving the problem and making sure we’re answering any questions our customers might have.”
That’s where education becomes a core part of the planning. Hornstein explains that this has been central to her approach in Australia, particularly since the technology for EVs is so new.
She says: “When we started out on this journey, there were a couple of questions I always asked the team: ‘Why would a customer want to buy an EV? Why would they want to buy a BYD if they were in the market for an EV? Why now?’”
It’s a simple framework, but one that reflects the reality of marketing a new and often misunderstood technology.
Hornstein adds: “This is a hugely technical product, so we want to make sure we convey that as much as we can to the customer and frame it in a way which is benefit-led.
“Ultimately, that’s what they’re looking for. They’re looking for something that’s going to alleviate their problem.”
For Hornstein, it all comes back to the same principle, of understanding the fundamentals and staying true to the customer.
Watch the full episode of Join The Ride ➔ Brands in Motion on B&T’s YouTube channel, with episodes out now for Naysla Edwards (Amex) and Leandro Perez (Salesforce). Episodes featuring David Ohana (UN Foundation) and Ed Stening (Posca Hydrate) are coming soon.
