Why is this work relevant for PR?

To expand our vision for future mobility, we merged with Boston Dynamics. However, the public felt uncomfortable about robots invading human territory. To improve these negative emotions to positive and fun emotions. We made robot dogs dance with BTS each part are the symbol of robotics and humanity &culture. Through a collaboration that has never been done before, we tried to give people fresh shock and fun things to see. This campaign was able to promote our vision to the public to become an integrated mobility solution provider brand rather than a mobility manufacturer in a friendly way.

Background

To expand our vision for future mobility, we merged with Boston Dynamics in June 2020. However, the public felt uncomfortable about robots invading human territory. To improve these negative emotions to positive and fun emotions. Further more, the campaign was designed to deliver our purpose of why we take over a robotics company. We made robot dogs dance with BTS each part are the symbol of robotics and humanity &culture. Through a collaboration that has never been done before, we tried to give people fresh shock and fun things to see and promote our vision to the public to become an integrated mobility solution provider brand rather than a mobility manufacturer in a friendly way.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

In order to change the negative perception of robots replacing humans, we wanted to appeal to robots as more familiar beings from the perspective of mankind. We chose "Dance" as a primitive method to interact between two different spicies, humankind and robotics. Dance can be nonverbal language among different languages or, even without languages. The robots danced to the tune of IONIQ’s brand theme song ‘I'm On It’. Pulling off their smooth and delicate moves with BTS in perfect sync, it showed the evolution of robot technology in the most cheerful way. By combining the technological elements of robots with fun cultural elements using a track of BTS music and dance moves, we were able to create a film that everyone could enjoy and celebrate the merge of two businesses.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

We reinforced media touch points by leveraging in and external partnerships. The media coverage was maximized with the collaboration of BTS, who has massive social impact, and Boston Dynamics, who have powerful IT media impact. • Key message: We promote our robotics brand vision under Key brand message 'Progress for Humanity' to become an integrated mobility solution provider brand rather than a mobility manufacturer in a friendly way.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

Together with the M&A PR release, the manifesto film was released to present our brand vision on robotics business and once the buzz decreased, we launched the BTS dance film to generate online viral. Leveraging on Boston Dynamics’ social account, we released ‘Spot’s on it’ film to maximize the media impact. • Timeline - Released Robotics Manifesto film & M&A deal closure PR on June 21st - Released BTS Entertaining film on June 29th - Released Spot's Dance film(on Boston Dynamics Youtube) on June 29th

List the results (30% of vote)

Global top-tier news media such as CNN, BBC, etc and top IT media such as CNET, Slash Gear, etc covered our campaign. The film also ranked as global trending video on Youtube and was picked as top news on trend journals. Also, countries including North & South America, Asia, Europe, and Middle East also handled our campaign as top news. This year, the amount of social buzz (mentions on ‘Hyundai’ and ‘Robotics’) peaked the highest when the BTS entertaining film was launched, followed by the manifesto film and the M&A PR release. Our M&A PR and campaign films gained 120% of social buzz compared to last year’s acquisition news. Robots were generally considered to replace human labor and creepy, but after the campaign, we successfully shifted the negative sentiment with our emotional/ entertaining contents. The positive sentiment increased more than 5% after the campaign. The IONIQ brand music, which was the BGM of the film, gained a huge amount of social buzz as much as our robotics campaign during the same period. It also gave spotlight once again on our IONIQ brand, giving positive influence on Hyundai brand – keywords such as ‘Sustainability’ and ‘Message’ were frequently mentioned.