The centrepiece of our campaign was a nationwide TV advert. People in the UK don’t usually take too well to being lectured on how to do or say things, and we knew that if we were to achieve the objective of introducing the global pronunciation of the brand name, we’d have to do it in a way that didn’t sound too telly – especially as the brand had been using the UK pronunciation for years beforehand.

So we knew that humour and characterisation were important. Cue a montage of people asking their phones to take them to “Hy-un-dai”, only to find themselves somewhere else entirely, be it the High ‘n’ Dye hair salon, the High End Pie catering van, a Hawaiian Tie clothing shop, or something else equally as silly. The film ends with a frustrated man outside Highland Eye opticians being helped by a driver of an IONIQ, who points out it’s pronounced “Hyun-dae, by the way”. Which of course, the phone now recognises.

The TV ad was supported by a national radio campaign to promote awareness of the brand’s recent award wins, and financial offers. The mispronunciation theme translating neatly into the audio-only format.

Having invented a number of fictious businesses all with names that might be confused with “Hyundai” for the TV ad, we decided to expand on the idea by giving each of them their own real life setting. We created a simple web page for each business, purchased the web domains, and brought them to life.  Each page had its own look and feel, whilst also signposting people that if it’s not what they’re after, to head over to Hyundai.co.uk.

To complete the journey, we ran search ads and social media assets that encouraged people to explore the sites themselves before ultimately finding out more about Hyundai and the progress the brand has made.

The campaign has performed exceptionally well. According to the YouGov poll in January 2023, Hyundai enjoyed the biggest increase in brand awareness for January going from 5.4 on Christmas Day, the day before it broke, up to 18.7 – a jump of 13.3 percentage points, making it their “Auto Advertiser of the Month”.

https://business.yougov.com/content/7617-hyundais-new-uk-ad-campaign-may-divide-consumers-but-people-are-noticing-it

It continued to perform effectively all the way through February and into March 2023, with YouGov’s follow up analysis stating that it’s not an incremental increase in brand chatter, but a quantum leap, with huge increases in word of mouth and ad awareness (tripling from Boxing Day to mid February 2023). Brand consideration was also more than 2 percentage points higher on 1^st February 2023 than a year earlier, going from 13.5% to 15.7%.

https://business.yougov.com/content/7854-hyundai-smashing-records-with-latest-ad-campaign

It was also talked about by high profile presenters including Chris Evans on radio and Rory Reid for AutoTrader. And it generated a lot of chatter on socials, with a mixture of opinions – some people welcoming the different pronunciation whilst others steadfastly promising never to change.  But regardless of whether people adopt the new pronunciation or not, it doesn’t matter. It’s resonated with the consumer, got people talking about the brand and has had a positive, real effect on business performance.

Securing time with three high profile Surrey County Cricket players – Chris Jordan, Ollie Pope and Rory Burns – at a pre-arranged media day, we set out to gather as much visual and audio recordings as possible. The challenge? We only had one hour with each player to gather the content they needed and most importantly, get it right under the strict time constraints. There was no option to go back and re-record.

Given these time limitations, a solid plan was needed to maximise the sessions with each player, all whilst sticking to the brief and keeping the pre-recorded car footage front of mind. We drafted scripts prior to meeting the players, which ensured the voice over part of the sessions were kept as short as possible. Video briefs and storyboarding meant videographers could capture the staged visuals as swiftly as possible whilst again staying in line with the original brief.

Our video production team successfully gathered footage of each player’s ‘pre-match’ moments, as well as their ‘celebrations’ on the field.

The strategic preplanning of scripts and visuals meant that we were able to savour time to capture authentic and candid interviews with the players. The effective use of time helped the agency stockpile a large variety of visuals and audio that would aid in the execution of the brief.

With the work we did during the day, we are able to capture the following content:

• Organic interview session.
• Scripted voice over session.
• Visual shots of Players’ profile, kit prep. Their ‘pre-match’ moments in the changing rooms.
• Outdoor shots of the players on the field, their celebrations.

Three edits were developed with the footage we shot, one for each player. The tone of the videos was adapted based the footage and recording for each player, varying between the unscripted and the scripted to produce edits that feel relaxed, natural and engaging.

The use of archival cricket footage meant less pressure to capture all footage needed on the day. This type of footage also added further dynamism to Kia’s visuals and those that were recorded during the sessions.

The collaboration between Kia and Surrey County Cricket Club yielded a resounding success, creating a seamless link between the automotive giant and the cricket world. The final visuals and content not only established a compelling connection between the sport and the brand but also delivered an exciting and interactive viewing experience.

In total, the three films accumulated over 29,500 views on Surrey County Cricket Club’s Instagram channel with an astounding 3.1 million impressions from the content on Kia’s own channels. The results exceeded all expectations and received much praise from cricket fans, the cricket club, and the car manufacturer.

Kia commended the videos, dubbing them as the best piece of cricket content produced in recent years. The social media surge that followed the launch of the content solidified the success of the brief with the videos playing a pivotal role in elevating the partnership between Kia and Surrey Cricket Club.