Less than two months before the big football game—and the biggest day in advertising—Fountain Valley-based automaker Hyundai Motor America and Kia Motors North America in Irvine already have their sights set on Super Bowl 53. But while Hyundai is announcing its game plan, Kia is keeping its playbook close to the vest for now.
The carmakers announced their return to the Super Bowl this month. The game is scheduled for Feb. 3 at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, and will be broadcast on CBS.
Hyundai will be advertising in the National Football League’s championship game for the fourth year in a row. Its agency of record, Innocean Worldwide, will create a 30-second pregame commercial and a 60-second spot to run in the first quarter. It also plans fan experience events in Atlanta.
Thirty-second Super Bowl spots cost an estimated $5 million or more, according to industry trade data.
Chief Marketing Officer Dean Evans said it’s the country’s largest stage—with more than 100 million television viewers—where Hyundai can best reach its target audience.
“After more than a decade of Super Bowl experience and well-regarded creative executions, we are excited to return to the Big Game with fresh, new content that uses the successful formula we’ve refined over the years,” he said in a statement.
The automaker’s ad last Super Bowl featured its nonprofit organization, Hyundai Hope on Wheels, in the spot “Hope Detector” featuring Hyundai owners meeting pediatric cancer survivors and family members who benefitted because of their purchases.
Last year, Hyundai also drew attention when it filmed the 90-second spot “A Better Super Bowl” during the game that was aired immediately after the contest.
The ad showed troops stationed in Poland watching the game who were surprised when they were able to see their families, who were at the stadium. The spot garnered more than 74 million views.
Meanwhile, Kia has kept details of its game advertising plans under wraps.
It will be the 10th consecutive year the automaker has rolled out Super Bowl ads, created by its El Segundo-based agency of record, David & Goliath, which Innocean acquired last year in a deal valued at up to $71 million.
Virtual Win
Laguna Niguel-based marketing firm Focus 360 Inc. scored a win for client Quadrant Homes, a homebuilder based in Bellevue, Wash. that’s a unit of Irvine-based TRI Pointe Group Inc. (NYSE: TPH).
It created a campaign for Quadrant Homes’ Kirkwood Terrace project, a community of a dozen custom-designed single-family homes in Sammamish, Wash., starting at $1.8 million, that featured digital sales tools and virtual tours.
The effort was named “Marketing Campaign of the Year” by independent trade organization New Home Council last month.
Focus 360 founder Steve Ormonde said it was “extremely rewarding to see our VR solutions contribute to such a prestigious honor for Quadrant Homes.”
Quadrant Director of Marketing Megan West added in a statement that a major part of the campaign relied on life-like virtual tours and renderings—the kind of content that “resonates on social media platforms.”
Focus 360 has specialized in creating virtual model homes, as well creating VR solutions and architectural renderings, among other services. Other area clients include Aliso Viejo-based New Home Co. and City Ventures of Irvine.
Bits & Pieces
New York-based media agency Generator Media and Analytics opened its first West Coast outpost in Costa Mesa last month. It’s headed by Debrianna Obara, former senior vice president of media for Newport Beach-based firm Sandbox Agency. … Newport Beach-based firm Kitchen Table Marketing and Public Relations added clients Sage Hill School, Scholarship Prep Charter Schools, Pizza Press Newport Beach, Good Life Designed and Toast Kitchen and Bakery. … Asics America Corp. in Irvine named Sean Mannion vice president of sales to oversee all commerce functions in the U.S. Mannion, who previously served as general manager and senior director of sales at Under Armour Inc., will be based in Boston.
