Marketing, News

KIA’S homegrown advertising campaign promoting its burgeoning EV range has attracted a lot of interest, but not all is positive news for the car-maker’s new TV ad which has been given saturation exposure throughout the Australian Open tennis tournament of which Kia is the main sponsor. 

It features a disturbing dystopian world of disfigured and contorted zombies in a devastated landscape from which Kia owners are isolated within their Kia EVs. 

The zombie ad for Kia’s EV range was created in Australia for the domestic market but now, after getting a positive reaction from Kia’s head office in Korea, it could be heading global.

Kia Australia CEO Damien Meredith said his feedback, predominantly from dealers, was that it was working well.

Kia Australia CEO, Damien Meredith

“Kia was happy with the campaign and I’d say more than 80 per cent of our market have given it a positive reaction,” he said.

“That’s the feedback we have. So there’s 20 per cent who don’t love it. But the result is good and that’s what we aim for.”

AdNews reported that the ad, which centres on a zombie apocalypse world, was created in Australia by Hyundai-Kia’s agency Innocean with international director, Francois Rousselet from Division.

Innocean, in a report from AdNews, said it went for the zombie genre as an in-your-face way of increasing awareness of Kia’s EV range.

“To do this they had to ask some out of this world questions – what would everyday life in Australia be like during a zombie apocalypse?” the AdNews report said.

“How would we pop off to the shops, keep our drinks cool, or find our way around? Kia answers these questions in a tongue in cheek manner, as it shows that the EV5 and EV9 vehicles allow you to get on with life, even if you’re living in a world inhabited by zombies.”

The ad shows how Kia EV drivers can navigate a dystopian world through the media of 90-second, 60-second and 30-second TV ads that centre on three apocalyptic storylines that all culminate at the epicentre of the campaign, a quintessentially suburban Australian shopping centre – Jacaranda Plaza.“Brought to life in meticulous detail, a trademark of his previous work, the sunny streets of the Australian suburbia were overrun with more than a hundred movement artists all transformed into zombies,” AdNews said.

AdNews reported that Kia Australia GM of marketing, Dean Norbiato, said Kia was backing creativity as a key player in its marketing strategy.

“A zombie apocalypse set against sunny Australian suburbia is a pretty unique creative playground to showcase Kia’s EV range in a genuinely entertaining way,” he said.

“We wanted to capture that laid-back Aussie spirit and ingenuity and distinctively showcase the role our range of electric vehicles, and their features, would play in a fantasy zombie world.”

Kia Australia GM of marketing, Dean Norbiato

It was director Francois Rousselet’s first work in Australia and follows him directing the latest John Lewis Christmas spot and films for A$AP Rocky and the Rolling Stones. His brief was a vision to show Kia EV drivers navigating a suburban paradise gone awry, AdNews said.

Innocean CDs Nick Cole & Pat Allenby said as the EV market grows, so too does the ambition of Kia to deliver truly bold and unexpected work.“With the masterful direction of Francois Rouselett and the ridiculously hard work of the team around him, we’ve created a campaign that aims to entertain, underpinned by the news that Kia now has a complete range of EVs,” the pair said to AdNews.

Talent in the campaign was headlined by Australian actors and actresses Luke Arnold, Tess Haubrich and Chloe Zuel, with the campaign also including a special guest appearance from Jamie Durie, as he contorted and gave the best ‘zombie tradie’ performance of his career.

By Neil Dowling

Manheim
Manheim
PitcherPartners
Schmick