Kia Motors America Inc. employs a coming-of-age metaphor in its advertising campaign to introduce the 2014 Cadenza—the Irvine-based automaker’s first foray into the premium segment of the sedan market.
The 30-second TV spot—titled Reunion and set to a remix of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”—features a woman clad in a skin-tight black dress and stilettos as she steps out of a Cadenza onto the red carpet at her high school reunion.
“Remember that girl you didn’t notice in high school? We’re a lot like that,” the narrator says as the woman makes her way through a crowd of stunned onlookers.
The slogan: impossible to ignore.
The ad was created by David & Goliath LLC of El Segundo, Kia’s advertising agency of record since 2000. It started airing on national TV networks last week, including spots during the NBA Finals.
An additional two TV ads are slated to follow the Reunion spot, and they will be complemented by a marketing campaign that’s expected to include print, digital and social media components, according to Tim Chaney, executive director of marketing and communications for Kia.
Print, Digital
Print magazine placement will include Esquire, Men’s Journal, Simple, Food and Wine and Sunset. The digital portion of the campaign will encompass automotive and lifestyle websites, such as Wired.com and Golf.com, as well as social media engagement via Facebook and Twitter.
“We are finding out that 40% of our website visits come from mobile devices, a trend that has grown significantly in a short period of time,” Chaney said. “We are taking that into account in how we are reaching our customers and engaging with them.”
Kia also is working with San Francisco-based OpenTable Inc., which facilitates online reservations for more than 28,000 restaurants across the country. The carmaker plans to present Cadenza at “top notch dining venues” to “engage people in a premium and relaxing atmosphere,” Chaney said.
“The [ad campaign’s] challenge was to communicate with a different type of customer who is not familiar with Kia, as we haven’t offered this type of vehicle,” he said.
The company is seizing an “emerging opportunity” created in a market gap between traditional midsize sedans and luxury sedans to reach customers who are open to quality product and are not loyal to traditional luxury brands, such as Mercedes or BMW, he said.
Kia touts the Cadenza as “the most powerful and technologically-advanced vehicle Kia has ever introduced in North America,” featuring a V6 engine; advanced smart cruise control that adjusts the vehicle’s speed when it nears another vehicle in its path; blind-spot detection; and a lane-departure warning system, all offered at a starting price of $35,100.
Cadenza is third in a line of seven models released this year. The 2014 Sorrento and Forte Compact models have already debuted. The Cadenza will be followed by the
2014 Forte four-door, 2014 Forte Coup and 2014 Soul, as well as the 2014 Optima sedan, which will be released in September.
Kia has seen three straight years of record-breaking sales. It had a 14.9% gain last year to 557,599 vehicles sold. The North American market accounted for $15.6 billion in sales in 2012, about a third of the worldwide total for South Korea-based parent Kia Motors Corp., at current exchange rates.
Ad Spending
Kia’s 2012 annual report, released in February, shows $1.14 billion in ad spending worldwide. It’s estimated that ad spending for the brand in North America tops $300 million annually.
Advertising spending on Cadenza is “strong and significant,” Chaney said.
He declined to disclose the company’s marketing budget but said it’s grown 12% each year for the past several years.
“As we grow our brand in the United States, our budget has kept pace,” he said.
Los Angeles-based Interactive Media handles Kia’s media buying, while Innocean Worldwide of Huntington Beach is in charge of its media-placement business.
