Kia Motors America has hired a Chicago-based advertising agency to help drive its “U.S. multicultural communication strategy as well as diversity and inclusion efforts internally and externally.”
Among the first duties LimeGreen LLC will take up on behalf of the Irvine-based automaker will be ads for the African American market. The agency said it expects its responsibilities to expand to include other ethnic niches.
African-American, Latino-American and Asian-American combine for nearly a quarter of new vehicle registrations in the U.S., according to recent data from industry researcher IHS Automotive in Englewood, Colo.
“To reach multicultural consumers you have to understand how they are different, how they are affected by history, culture, life experiences and values, while speaking to them authentically so they connect with your brand in their mind and in their heart,” Rhonda Bolton, Kia’s head of corporate diversity initiatives, said in a statement. “We have chosen to retain LimeGreen for a number of reasons: the company has a proven track record of helping their clients better understand diverse consumers at their core, and LimeGreen’s leadership team has impressive knowledge capital in the areas of multicultural automotive marketing, diversity and inclusion, and social responsibility.”
LimeGreen’s roster of clients also includes Discover Financial Services and McDonald’s Corp.
