KIA

The Objective

Kia, Korea's leading global automobile manufacturer, sought to target millennials and promote their newly launched compact SUV-Seltos. The name was inspired by the legend of “Celtos”, the son of Hercules in Greek mythology. Kia wanted to promote a sophisticated, sporty and spacious look for the Seltos, and set it apart from its competitors by connecting the message “SELTOS brings passion and vitality” with youthful, tech-savvy buyers. They were sure that this message could be delivered in a creative and authentic way through the TikTok platform.

The Solution

The Seltos Hashtag Challenge ingeniously mimicked Kia's overarching brand identity of “bringing a new beat” to the global auto industry, while conveying the product message of “passion and vitality”.

The Branded Music used in the challenge conveyed the feeling of rhythmical heartbeats, pumping stronger and stronger as a dreary low-energy millennial transformed into an energetic fashionista to the roar of the Seltos engine. The impact of the transformation was amplified with Branded Effects, featuring neon glasses, movement indicators and a full battery emoji.

The impact of the two-day Brand Takeover was amplified with three days of In-feed Ads in which three top influencers were invited to take part in the challenge. Initial momentum was sustained as other TikTok influencers joined the challenge bandwagon, building clout behind the message of the Seltos Hashtag Challenge and strongly resonating with the young audience.

User participation in the challenge effectively exposed Kia's brand and its new product to the desired audience and generated tons of innovative interpretations of how the compact Seltos SUV can reactivate your inner vitality.

The Results

In the short span of 8 days, the official video obtained 6.8 million video views, while smartphone natives shared their own takes on the brand message with 16 thousand user generated videos. The full-screen Brand Takeover achieved a 14.3% click-through-rate, totaling 9.4 million impressions with an additional 2.2 million impressions achieved via In-Feed Ads.