Irvine-based Kia Motors America Inc.’s marketing team had the new year in mind when it was forced to retool plans around the launch of its next-generation Sorento.
The fourth generation of the SUV model is in the midst of a journey to Times Square in New York, stopping along the way at dealerships in multiple states, as it hauls the ‘2021’ numbers to be placed atop One Times Square.
“This is the first time we’ve done something with New Year’s Eve, the first time we’ve done something in Times Square, the first time we’ve done something doing a tour across the country. So there’s lots of firsts,” pointed out Kia Director of Marketing Operations Russell Wager.
Planning began in mid-August for the launch, which was originally slated for the fall.
“We were thinking ‘OK, we’ve got an upcoming Sorento launch and we want to make a big splash for it and usually we make big splashes for our launches in the Super Bowl and that usually takes place in February, but this has to start earlier,” Wager said.
Turning the page on 2020 seemed like a good theme to market around the vehicle.
The SUV will make one-day stops at dealers in Las Vegas, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The 2021 numbers being hauled by the Sorento will get to New York before Christmas, where it will be on display at street level for a few days before being installed on the building.
Seven Sorentos and three Telluride SUVs will also transport essential workers and first responders on New Year’s Eve to Times Square.
Staying Flexible
The strategy around the Sorento represented the raft of change-ups the Kia team has had to make this year in response to launch delays and restrictions around live sporting events and advertising there.
“Unfortunately, we’ve had to do multiple shifts, but we were able to work through them,” Wager said. “So if you unfortunately think back to March when a lot of this started getting kicked into higher gear with the pandemic, the first thing we had to do, we just couldn’t be out there with our launch messaging.”
At the time, the Seltos SUV had just launched at the Super Bowl. Momentum was building and then the pandemic hit.
Wager and team decided it was best to communicate to current and prospective owners and lessees, while also supporting front-line workers. The result was the Accelerate the Good campaign, which was about information for new and existing vehicle owners and lessees, in addition to bringing awareness around youth homelessness.
“When we got to probably May or June, we saw that the economy and the states were starting to reopen, so we had to quickly shift again,” Wager said of the preparations to launch the K5 mid-size sedan.
The challenge was Kia’s Georgia factory was in the midst of making face shields, meaning the production switch to the K5 wasn’t going to happen overnight, causing that launch to be pushed from the summer to the fall.
Elsewhere, the Los Angeles auto show that typically would be taking place around Thanksgiving was postponed and moved to May. The National Basketball Association will restart its season Dec. 22, “so here we go again with we do not know in all of the arenas whether people will be allowed in, whether 10% to 20% will be allowed in,” the marketing executive pointed out. The uncertainty has forced Kia to think out contingency plans to address all the what-if scenarios. And that sort of quick thinking is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
“I don’t know that 2021 will be a normal year either and I’m not sure what the definition of normal will be,” Wager said. “We’re still in the constant planning and re-planning mode.”
