New Jersey’s Mini North America LLC wanted to create a stir last month by challenging Germany’s Porsche Automobil Holding SE to a race.
In a Facebook video posted by Mini and featuring Mini North America boss Jim McDowell, the BMW AG brand argued its Mini Cooper S could best a Porsche 911 Carrera S.
Porsche declined to race.
But it seems Fountain Valley-based Hyundai Motor America Inc. is more than ready to take Porsche’s place.
The automaker, part of South Korea’s Hyundai Kia Automotive Group, issued its own video challenge to Mini last month, saying if Porsche wasn’t willing to race, Hyundai would take on the Mini Cooper with its Genesis coupe.
“The Mini campaign launched and it was obvious Porsche wasn’t going to step up,” said Dan Bedore, national manager of public relations at Hyundai. “We thought what if somebody else stepped in, what would Mini do?”
So far Mini hasn’t said whether it will accept the Hyundai challenge.
The challenge is part of Hyundai’s bid to do more social media marketing.
Marketing Vice President Chris Perry—who took over for marketing guru Joel Ewanick, who left in April for General Motors Corp.—has sought to increase the automaker’s social media marketing.
“We’ve been stepping up our participation in social media, including Facebook and Twitter,” Bedore said. “Hyundai wants to be able to engage with consumers on a level where they are talking and we’re trying to talk back in a fun and exciting way.”
Much of the talk online was about whether Mini would take on the new challenger, according to Bedore.
In other Hyundai news, the automaker is becoming the name sponsor of college football’s Sun Bowl game for the next four years. The El Paso, Texas, game, formerly known as the Brut Sun Bowl, will be known as the Hyundai Sun Bowl.
The Sun Bowl was sponsored for the past six years by Brut cologne of Bermuda’s Helen of Troy Ltd.
Hotel Magazine Change
Preferred Destinations Magazine, a quarterly tourist publication found at hotels, is changing its name and aligning itself with a local website.
The magazine, part of Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc.—parent of the Orange County Register—has linked up with Freedom’s OrangeCounty.com.
The site, which launched last year, is designed to be an interactive guide to what’s happening at local nightspots, restaurants, beaches, concerts, movie theaters and shopping centers.
The move is designed to help the magazine attract locals as well as travelers, according to Erin Zilis, vice president of Freedom Specialty Media and publisher of OrangeCounty.com.
The magazine is being renamed OrangeCounty.com, starting with the summer 2010 issue.
The website is set to add a tab called See OC for visiting business and leisure travelers, as well as local meeting planners and concierges.
Freedom acquired the quarterly tourist magazine in 2006.
“With more and more people doing their travel arrangements online, it made sense to partner with the website,” Zilis said.
Freedom bought the OrangeCounty.com Internet address about four years ago without a specific plan for it.
In 2008, the company launched the website as a place for locals to get information about entertainment and events.
OrangeCounty.com was working with the ocregister.com, another Freedom site, but now will be overseen by Zilis and her staff.
Travel Site Ups Internet Marketing
Newport Beach-based CobbleStay.com is looking to step up its online marketing to travelers interested in a stay in Paris this summer.
The company, which books short-term apartments in Paris, is doing Internet marketing that includes search engine optimization, search engine marketing and e-mail blasts to interested travelers looking for something other than a hotel.
The company is targeting U.S. and Canadian travelers on travel sites with banner ads and e-mails.
Founder Drew Graham, a former Yahoo Inc. European director of marketing and business development, used to manage about $30 million in performance marketing at Yahoo.
Those same skills are being utilized for CobbleStay.com, albeit with a smaller marketing budget.
CobbleStay.com is utilizing online ads and ads in Parisian newspapers and magazines to reach out to apartment owners.
The company added four apartments last month and plans to add 15 more by summer’s end.
CobbleStay.com grew out of a project apartment Graham bought while stationed in Paris with Yahoo. The company now has about 10 apartments to rent.
