As an alternative of operating a Tremendous Bowl industrial this yr, Hyundai is getting right into a fictional model of the sport with the assistance of an imaginary advert crew.
The automaker’s upcoming Ioniq 5 was featured within the ABC sitcom “black-ish” this month, with star Anthony Anderson, who performs an advert government named Andre Johnson, engaged on a pretend Tremendous Bowl industrial for the electrical automobile.
As Johnson and his staff brainstormed outlandish concepts — “a musical quantity! Ioniq 5, type of just like the Jackson 5” — Anderson’s character labored in references to Ioniq 5 options and made certain viewers knew it was an EV. Whereas the staff threw out strategies a couple of canine plugging the automobile in and lemurs that may discuss, a picture of the crossover was on a TV within the background.
Ultimately, Johnson pitches an idea wherein the Ioniq 5 passes a horse-drawn buggy and an array of newer automobiles. The driving force will get dwelling and demonstrates the reverse-charging characteristic through the use of the automobile to energy string lights over his patio.
Viewers do not get to see a visible of the concept, however Johnson’s imaginative and prescient is not far off the theme of an actual Ioniq 5 advert that was set to air in the course of the NFL’s convention championship video games Sunday, Jan. 30.
The present approached Hyundai first in regards to the episode’s premise.
“They have been fairly spot on on how we thought we’d wish to depict Ioniq 5,” Angela Zepeda, Hyundai Motor America’s chief advertising and marketing officer, informed Automotive Information. “Our inventive staff at Innocean and our technique staff, they did type of work with them slightly bit on giving them slightly extra sense of the place we have been going with our marketing campaign on Ioniq 5. Apart from that, that they had the concept and actually introduced it again to us, and we fell in love with it.”
The Ioniq 5 integration builds on Hyundai’s relationship with Disney, ABC’s mum or dad. The 2 firms collaborated final yr on a superhero-packed launch marketing campaign for the redesigned Hyundai Tucson that featured characters from Marvel, which is owned by Disney.
Hyundai’s affiliation with “black-ish” over the previous yr has made the present’s creators consider the automaker first when fascinating concepts come up, stated Jason Croddy, senior vp of technique for Canvas Worldwide, Hyundai’s media shopping for company.
Croddy, in a press release to Automotive Information, stated Hyundai had a constructive expertise working with “black-ish” throughout “the peak of the COVID pandemic in 2021 — and that completely set the stage for this even greater alternative within the present’s remaining season.”
The sitcom, now in its eighth season, is a platform that places the Ioniq 5 in entrance of African American viewers who Zepeda says are considering innovation and expertise. As automakers promote a mess of latest EVs to shoppers, Hyundai sees “black-ish” as a approach to get the Ioniq 5 into the fray.
“We wished to be within the vernacular, the dialog, popular culture, getting folks to speak about Ioniq 5 simply as a lot as they will discuss in regards to the different automobiles which might be popping out and being talked about by different OEMs,” Zepeda stated. “We did not wish to miss out on that. This was our approach of being within the Tremendous Bowl with out being within the Tremendous Bowl.”
Hyundai’s earlier appearances within the present embody a seventh-season episode with Johnson’s son, performed by Miles Brown, showcasing the driverless parking capabilities of the Santa Fe crossover. However the Tremendous Bowl advert idea went past easy product placement.
Zepeda stated Innocean gave the “black-ish” writers pointers to make use of whereas assembling the script. She stated Hyundai wished the present’s staff to know in regards to the Ioniq 5’s positioning and the way the tech-filled crossover is the “finest expression” of the model whereas representing evolution.
The deal with evolution got here by means of in a number of the episode’s dialogue, and the tag line Anderson’s character pitches for the Ioniq 5: “The journey at its most developed.”
“We actually depart it to the present writers and producers to provide you with what they assume is true for the present and we simply allow them to do their magic,” Zepeda stated. “I nearly felt like many instances they have been a lot nearer to our staff than they’re. They actually received the essence of the automobile, how we wished it to be introduced after which totally understood how we wished to take it to market.”