Kia has launched its latest campaign via Innocean Australia, positioning its Hybrid range as ‘the new breed of Hybrid’.
The fuel crisis early this year has pushed more and more buyers into electric and hybrid vehicles, it quickly became apparent to Kia that the pool of Aussies looking for an alternative fuel car had grown.
The brief to Innocean was simple – let people know that Kia makes hybrids, and not just any hybrid, a turbo powered, alpha one.
The campaign, which is currently live across TV, OOH, Social, BVOD, and Radio, follows a battle-scarred centaur and a Kia Sportage Turbo Hybrid in a competition for hybrid supremacy.
B&T revealed that this ad first ran in Nine’s State of Origin decider after Kia jumped at the chance to fill the spots left vacant by Telstra after it pulled its ads following its wide-ranging outage.
“We knew our hybrid range was delivering on exactly what hybrid buyers wanted out of the market. Problem was, not enough Aussies knew we even made hybrids, let alone ones this good to drive. With this campaign, we set out to challenge and change that,” said Dean Norbiato, general manager of marketing at Kia Australia.
While initially sceptical of the 4-wheeled, dual-engined beast, the centaur’s trepidation soon turns to respect, and then admiration, as it’s beaten in a race across the rugged terrain of Hybridland.
“The brief was a simple one, announce to Australia that Kia had a new breed of hybrids. Doing that in a way that cut through and gained attention, well that’s always the interesting bit. Luckily we have client partners that always want to push beyond the usual tropes of the category. And having a herd of old battle hardened centaurs discovering, chasing and eventually passing the mantle to the new breed of hybrids, certainly did that,” said Darren Wright, group creative director, Innocean.
The campaign follows a series of increasingly ambitious campaigns from Kia and Innocean, having Kia’s vehicles face down zombie hordes, aggrieved domestic robots, and now, mythical creatures.
Credits
Client: Kia Australia
Creative Agency: Innocean Australia
Media Agency: Advertising Associates
Production Company: FINCH
Director: Nick Ball
Managing Director: Corey Esse
Producer: Caroline David
Edit: ARC
Post & VFX: Alt.vfx
Composer: Stare Crazy/Jonathan Dreyfus
Sound: Massive Music
