Why is this work relevant for Direct?

To launch the Hyundai Venue, we challenged every convention in the SUV category and developed a new strategic approach to audience targeting, channel choice and direct marketing using disruptive digital creative. Our #4SecondReviews campaign for the Venue broke every digital benchmark for Hyundai and produced the most successful launch for them in the Australian SUV market. Our unique creative strategy showed that data can be disruptive, hilarious and can sell a ridiculous amount of micro-SUVs, with the campaign driving over $12million in Venue sales all from a total investment of just under $650,000.

Background

Going way back to the original Toyota RAV 4 launch, the SUV has become synonymous with a young male audience, chasing recreation and the Australian desire to get out of the city to explore new terrains. With Australia being one of the largest, most sophisticated and competitive new-car markets in the world we had our work cut out for us when tasked with the launch of the all-new Hyundai Venue in an extremely saturated SUV category. Briefed with driving awareness and consideration for the Hyundai Venue, our goal became clear; challenge the stagnant sector's orthodoxies in ways that our competitors and the category itself could have never imagined. Whilst our competitors spent millions on television campaigns, we had a total media and production budget of $635,000, so we had no choice but to do something completely ground-breaking to drive sales of this new vehicle in Australia.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

Welcome to Hyundai Venue 4-Second Reviews. 30 blink-and-you’ll-miss-them, meme-like car reviews, from a range of motoring “experts” – like a time traveller, a flat earther and a cactus, to name a few; all lending their unique perspectives on the new ‘Absurdly Sensible’ Hyundai Venue. Using data to strategically match car features to our audience’s interests, we created engaging, personalised content. So, whether it was short snippets on Instagram, tailored content for Snapchat and YouTube, immersive Instant Experiences on Facebook, our reviews stopped our audience scrolling and caught their attention. To garner some celeb cred, we convinced six of our target audience’s favourite 90's celebrities to come along for the ride, like Flava Flav, Dog The Bounty Hunter, Cory Feldman, Carson Kressley, Tori Spelling and Lance Bass.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The current car buyer's average age is now 40+ and primarily women, which is the segment most significantly under-served by auto advertising. Overall this group desired practical reassurance during the decision making process, delivered in easily digestible ways, while appreciating a sense of humorous personality in the media they consume. So, the key to cutting through and connecting with this audience was striking a balance between practicality and personality. With data showing that over 73% of car buyers use online auto research and social media as their primary, most trusted source of information when buying a car, we realised something - online auto reviews were stuck in the past, being long winded articles aimed at car geeks. Data also showed that online attention spans are now just 4.1 seconds. With these insights, we understood we had to take a more punchy, impactful and targeted approach to make a lasting impression.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The Hyundai 4-Second Car Reviews campaign is made up of 30 quirky, blink-and-you’ll-miss-them, short form film reviews from motoring ‘experts’ including a dog, a cactus, a time traveller and a flat earther to name but a few, all lending their unique perspectives on the new ‘Absurdly Sensible’ Hyundai Venue. The campaign also takes a trip down memory lane, with a host of naughties Hollywood icons including Lance Bass, Tori Spelling, Carson Kressley, The Bounty Hunter and Corey Feldman, all delivering their 4-Second Car Reviews on the Hyundai Venue. So what exactly does a Time Traveller think of the new Hyundai Venue’s technology? “It’s very now.”

List the results (30% of vote)

Our #4SecondReviews broke every digital media benchmark Hyundai had in Australia. With a small paid media budget of just $360,000, the campaign had over 6 million complete views. We saw a radical increase in time spent on the Hyundai site, averaging 4.4 minutes, compared to the site’s average of 1.5 minutes over the same period. SSOV exploded, tripling positive sentiment towards the brand during the campaign period and outperforming the Australian auto brand average. Advertising recall increased by 58%, and amongst the new target audience, consideration of the Hyundai Venue rose by 72%. The campaign smashed Hyundai’s online test-drive benchmark and drove a staggering $12 million in Hyundai Venue sales - all from a total investment of just under $650,000. Faced with the challenges of a small budget and a vastly over-saturated market, this campaign resulted in the most successful Hyundai launch in the Australian market ever.