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Hyundai has long been the butt of jokes and thought of as a cheap car with questionable quality. However, the truth of the matter is Hyundai today has exceptional vehicles with outstanding craftsmanship, performance and safety records. To change brand perceptions and simultaneously boost sales, we presented Hyundai with a strategy that shifted the brand from being seen as an “inexpensive purchase” to a “smart purchase”. To execute this strategy we found areas in which Hyundai vehicles could beat expensive cars from luxury brands such as BMW, Lexus and Land Rover. By showing people that Hyundai cars could exceed these brands in a number of key performance and head to head tests — all for a price that is tens of thousands of dollars less — we were able to clearly convey that Hyundai’s are the smartest vehicles on the road. Siltanen & Partners also signed Kelsey Grammer to serve as the voice over for the “smart” campaign — giving the brand an entirely new level of credibility. After the first quarter that the campaign aired, S&P’s “Smart” campaign helped Hyundai set all-time, any-time quarterly and monthly sales records while industry wide sales were mostly down. Importantly, in the month of June (the first full month that the campaign was on the air) key models advertised (the Santa Fe and Sonata) had sales increases of 37% and 28% versus the year prior.
(To play commercial, click on image) |
