The Car And Nothing But The Car
Kia At The Brussels Car Show
Issue 32 | September 2014
Agency
mortierbrigade
Creative Team
Creative Directors Jens Mortier Joost Berends Philippe De Ceuster Strategy Vincent D’Halluin Art Director Manu Ostyn Copywriter Pieter Staes Creative Developers Wannes Vermeulen Wiestse De Ridder
Production Team
Agency Producers Philippe Van Eygen
Other Credits
Kia Communications Manager Bart Nijns Kia Marketing Manager Johan Vanden Bergh Marc Coopmans
Date
January 2014
Background
At the 2014 Brussels Motor Show, KIA left all the usual bells and whistles at home to focus entirely on their new cars, the new designs and Kia's unique 7 year warranty.
Idea
At every motor show, car manufacturers pulled out all the stops to put on an event of some sort in order to attract potential new clients. A successful show can be worth as much as 30% of annual revenue to a car company. KIA, however, were so confident of the quality their products, they decided they did not need any promotional gimmicks.
They opted instead to focus entirely on the cars. So they literally gave away their entire stock of promo items they would not be needing:
3,000 bottles of Cava, 400 champagne glasses, 30 serrano hams, 250kg of party snacks, balloons, confetti, red carpets, ice buckets, decorative plants, 3 piano's and 4 friendly hostesses.
TV ads said, "If you can put all these to good use, you can have them."
Results
People were invited to go online and reserve their items. In no time everything had been reserved and picked up at local KIA dealerships.
This led to over 3500 visits to the dealers and more than 1150 test drives. Before the motor show had even started.
KIA stood out by not desperately trying to stand out, reaching over 5 million Belgians, and resulting in a record 33% more sales.
Our Thoughts
Having spent time working on car accounts in the past, I know how very important it is to to get people to visit their local dealer. And how difficult. Often the promotions are extravagant to an extreme with massive price cuts or additional spec for free. They have to be to overcome the inertia of the car-buying public.
This brilliant idea would have been comparatively cheap. Of course, what it does is credit the car buyer with intelligence. It has at its heart a wonderful complicity that works a bit like this:
‘You know and we know how marketing works. But let’s skip all that and have some fun at our competitors’ expense.’