2015 Bronze Automotive

VCCPme

Kia Motors UK

Kia Soul EV £2.80 Campaign

The Team
Mark Hopkins, Kim Wiggins, Jenny Devine, Rupert Harrison, Brett Gascoigne, Tom Young, Chiara Consiglio, Jon Bancroft, Dan Kennedy

Campaign overview

To launch the Kia Soul EV, the company needed to change the way drivers had always thought and persuade them to consider and then choose an electric car.

In line with Kia’s proposition The Power to Surprise, it performed a highly disruptive stunt that boldly demonstrated how the car would benefit potential customers.

The campaign had consumers literally queueing down the road, drummed up wider publicity and delivered an astonishing increase in traffic to kia.co.uk.

Strategy

Going electric was a daunting change and easy for consumers to avoid. Electric vehicles were still seen as very limited in the distance they could cover. But a fully charged Kia Soul EV will drive 132 miles, more than enough for a full week’s average UK commute, and cost a mere £2.80.

Kia took these rational benefits of cost and range and found a dramatic stunt to make them emphatically engaging.

The stunt was supported by The Soul EV Challenge app, which made the benefits clearer than ever by telling drivers how far their current car would get for £2.80 compared to the Soul EV.

A competition on social media, called The £2.80 Twittergram, encouraged people to post a photo of everyday items that cost that amount, with the hashtag #kia2pound80, for the chance to win a full tank of petrol.

Creativity

For the stunt, Kia took over a real petrol station and charged customers just £2.80 to fill up their tank.

The petrol station didn’t look any different, leaving customers unaware until they reached the counter to pay. An actor played the cashier to explain the extraordinary discount and the difference that ‘going electric’ would make.

On the forecourt, a new Kia Soul EV was placed for customers to look at and get information about, with direction to an interactive landing page.

Customers’ reactions were filmed from several hidden cameras and the footage used online.

A full digital ecosystem was built around the activity, including the Soul EV Challenge app and campaign microsite, while interactive display, Facebook posts and email were also used to reach targeted prospects.

Results

The stunt was a huge success. Customers who got a tank of fuel for £2.80 were naturally very happy and receptive – and phoned their friends until cars were queuing down the street.

This excitement and awareness transferred to a wider audience online, with 2.3 million YouTube and Twitter impressions and a Twitter reach above 530,000. This drove a social authority index of 4.0, versus an average 1.8 for celebrities and 3.0 for news. The stunt video gained over 230,000 views, while more than 250,000 people engaged with interactive display. Emails earned up to 40% open rates and 5% click-through. Kia.co.uk daily site visits soared by 2200%.

Articles in Event, The Drum, LBB Online, Creativepool and AM-online provided free PR and helped the campaign create a halo of innovation around the Kia brand, truly in keeping with The Power to Surprise.