Historically Hyundai have struggled to secure customer excitement about its brand. Hyundai sought to move the needle on 'Brand Love.' At a time of austerity for many markets, its price-driven communications were no bad thing. However, long-term growth would only come with consumers having a reason to buy Hyundai for values other than price.
To drive the re-positioning it developed a new brand platform; 'Modern Premium', redefining what premium meant to the consumer, but crucially, at competitive prices. With a new creative positioning in place, 'New Thinking New Possibilities', Hyundai was ready to shift people's perception and increase brand consideration via a broad based campaign.
A 'Meet the Screen' survey by Microsoft & BBDO Worldwide uncovered that brand communication was about sharing stories rather than the pushing of messages. Hyundai felt that this was exactly the strategy needed to feature more prominently on the consumer consideration list. The survey further concluded that brands needed to leverage multiple platforms throughout the consumer decision journey to ensure positive consumer conversations.
Using this, Hyundai deployed a 5 C's strategy consisting of content, conversation, community, currency and celebrity. It focused around Hyundai's strapline of 'New Thinking, New Possibilities.'
New Thinkers Index (NTI) was a multi-platform interactive experience that helped people discover how they think and how that compares to others. The core of NTI was a simple and sharable 'Thinkers Test.' The quiz was co-created with renowned scientist, Dr. Branton Shearer, categorizing thinking into eight segments rather than the traditional two in Right/Left brain. The Test itself was a series of 24 questions scientifically written to determine how a person thinks. The 2 minute test then positioned the user into 1 of 8 categories; people, word, body, or number smart, self aware, musical, natural or visual.
It was further supported by the production of 22 original films each featuring a celebrity or expert showcasing their thinking in a challenging situation. They were categorised by consumer passion points; film, music, art, sport, gastronomy and science. They drew on the likes of Kevin Spacey, who produced a film in 24 hrs, to Richard Noble helping school kids win a car race, to Tom Jones & Nicole Scherzinger swapping songs and re-recording in their own styles , Tom (Jai Ho) Nicole ( What's New Pussycat ). Microsoft also created five films for Hyundai, in line with the company's own passions; eco-friendly, lifetime partner, recycling and fluidic sculpture design.
Via the index itself people could make new connections with other like-minded people through Facebook Connect. From this Index data Hyundai could discover if young Brazilians think differently to young Russians, providing endless insight for future marketing decisions. People compared themselves with celebrities, friends, family or anyone that had taken the test and downloaded a personalised 'Thought Visualizer', a piece of social currency, which provided an alternative to share test results across social platforms.
NTI was brought to life by a fusion of communications platforms, including Microsoft's own portfolio (MSN, Xbox, Messenger) devices (PC, TV, Tablet, Mobile), social platforms (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, StumbleUpon) and Hyundai's own assets (online, showrooms).
Results
New Thinkers Index was noticed by:
Display Media 120 million people
Xbox impressions 6 million people
Mobile Impressions 19.1million people
It got people involved:
Unique visits to hub 2.1 million
Average time spent on hub 6 minutes
Total time with brand 4413 days
Users taking Test 10%
Click through Rate to official site 2.73%
Celebrities sharing: Kevin Spacey (2.1m), Jessie J (1.9m) and Nicole Scherzinger (1.2m)
Hyundai's Brand Measures rose dramatically:
Awareness increased 1.9 times
Slogan Awareness +90%
Spontaneous Brand Linkage to Slogan +114%
Measures improved with Multi-Platform approach
"Premium" +137%
"Exceeds Expectations" +81%
Online Contribution noticeable:
Customer Preference +40%
Luxury +54%
Awareness of the Velostar, the main model featured in the project, increased 2.82 times.
Hyundai redirected spend to Microsoft and extended it past March 2012.