South Korea鈥檚 soccer team 聽may be heading out of World Cup 2014, but South Korean automaker Hyundai Kia Automotive Group clearly is in it to win it.
As the official auto partner of the World Cup through 2022, Hyundai Kia is in a powerful position.
With clever advertising running across ESPN and Spanish-language network Univision, Hyundai Kia dominates halftime, considered by some to be the most fertile territory for soccer commercials. So much so that Volkswagen is left to nibble around the edges during less-than-prime viewing time.
Both Hyundai and Kia, which are separate brands, made hubspot.com鈥檚 list of 鈥�8 Brands That Totally Nailed Their World Cup Ads,鈥� alongside heavyweights such as ESPN, McDonald鈥檚, Visa, Nike and Adidas.
Kia鈥檚 ads featuring Adriana Lima, the Brazilian model and actress best known as a Victoria鈥檚 Secret Angel,聽 hit the mark with 鈥渇un, cheeky ads that lightly scold the American male (Kia’s target audience) for being in a bubble 鈥� it reminds them to look beyond home to what the world has to offer.鈥�
鈥淭hat world includes things like f煤tbol,鈥� writes Niti Shah at Hubspot.com, 鈥渁nd, you know, foreign cars like Kia. Also, Adriana Lima wins because she’s Adriana Lima.鈥�
Here are the Kia videos with the theme, 鈥淔or one month, let鈥檚 all be f煤tbol fans鈥�:
鈥�Adriana Lima Football vs. F煤tbol鈥�
鈥�Adriana Lima Transforms a Man Cave鈥�
And 鈥�Adriana Lima Brings F煤tbol to a Sports Bar鈥�
Kia鈥檚 campaign is ranked fourth by hubspot.com, while Hyundai鈥檚 鈥�#BecauseF煤tbol鈥� was ranked sixth.
Here are Hyundai鈥檚 four 鈥�#BecauseF煤tbol鈥� television commercials, with the tempting titles 鈥�Boom,鈥� 鈥�Avoidance,鈥� 鈥�Epic Battle鈥� and prognosticating hamster 鈥�Tony the Wiz.鈥�
And, as if that isn鈥檛 enough, Hyundai offers the even better 鈥�Get In鈥� commercial, featuring pro soccer stars Ricardo 碍补办谩 of A.C. Milan, Iker Casillas of Real Madrid and Oscar (that鈥檚 it, just Oscar) of Chelsea.
Volkswagen鈥檚 commercials feature cars full of fans singing the ubiquitous, 鈥淥l茅, ol茅, ol茅, ol茅,鈥� presumably en route to a World Cup match, and famed Argentine game caller Andr茅s Cantor (鈥淕oooooooooooooal鈥�) and son, Nicolas, all navigating city streets in nimble GTIs.
“The alignment between who watches the World Cup鈥� and who drives a GTI 鈥� is perfect. That’s a match made in heaven for us,” Vinay Shahani, VW marketing chief, recently told Automotive News.
But Hyundai is the exclusive auto advertiser “within games” themselves, where viewer attention will be highest, according to David Matathia, the company鈥檚 communications director. “Obviously, we can’t buy out the networks entirely, so you will see other automotive companies potentially on those channels within the month-long run of the Cup. But within the games themselves, we are exclusive.”
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