Is Kia’s Robo Canine right here to remain?

The lovable digital canine has a star flip in Kia’s thirteenth Tremendous Bowl spot, which options the EV6. The canine, eager for an proprietor, chases down the battery-electric crossover with hopes that the motive force will take it dwelling.

Kia created lovely ambassadors earlier than with its dancing hamsters. The hamsters weren’t meant to be long-term characters, however they ended up sticking round as a result of they had been successful with viewers, mentioned Russell Wager, vice chairman of selling for Kia America.

Wager would not rule out the possibility of the identical factor occurring with Robo Canine if there is a comparable public response.

Kia launched the spot on-line Feb. 3, nicely earlier than the Tremendous Bowl this Sunday. The advert is bolstered by a bigger social marketing campaign on TikTok the place customers can dance with Robo Canine. The model this week additionally launched an augmented actuality expertise, or “Robo Dogmented Actuality,” the place the canine seems within the person’s setting after they look by their telephone digicam. The corporate mentioned the augmented actuality element permits customers to seek for adoptable animals of their areas by a partnership with the Petfinder Basis.

Reporter Vince Bond Jr. spoke to Wager and Marisstella Marinkovic, Kia America’s director of selling operations, concerning the origins of Robo Canine and the inspiration for the advert. Listed below are edited excerpts.

Q: What was the inspiration for the spot? Why was the EV6 the main target?

A: Wager: We’re making an attempt to point out people who we at the moment are a professional participant within the electrified area. EV6 is the primary car on our devoted E-GMP platform and actually our first main effort from our Plan S technique that is exhibiting that we’re dedicated to this space. From a quantity standpoint, yeah, you would not put EV6 within the Tremendous Bowl, however it’s not about EV6. It is about exhibiting that the model is now someone that you need to think about if you’re on the lookout for electrical automobiles. It is also arriving, as we converse, this month in dealerships for the primary time.

The thought was we wished folks to be emotionally related with us. The automobile appears to be like nice, however we wished to discover a story that folks go, “OK, EVs can look good; they can assist my way of life.” And it is one thing, no matter if it is an EV, the EV6 is a superb car. So we began there, and we discovered the thought of like, how are we going to show one thing about this automobile and make this automobile a hero? The thought was, nicely, possibly there’s another digital factor that we will affiliate it with, so the thought was create a Robo Canine.

Might Robo Canine be like a mascot for the corporate going ahead?

Wager: You clearly bear in mind our Kia Soul hamsters that we have finished. We truly by no means had any plans to make the hamsters any kind of mascot or long-term imaginative and prescient with the model. However customers warmed as much as them, liked them, and we reacted to that, so we continued the story. We’ll see how customers react to Robo Canine, after which we will go from there.

Do EVs give automakers an opportunity to be extra inventive with promoting?

Wager: I believe it permits us to reinvent the area. How do you get folks to recover from their fears? First concern is, will I run out of cost, proper? The second concern is, how lengthy is it going to take to cost? Third concern: Do I’ve to sacrifice on how the automobile appears to be like? So if you concentrate on EV6, it has over 300 miles’ vary. It has quick charging; it might probably go from 10 [percent] to 80 [percent] in lower than 18 minutes. After which it additionally appears to be like like an important automobile. EV or not, it is an incredible design. I believe we have addressed a number of the issues, and that provides us the liberty to inform that in several methods. TikTok, Dogmented Actuality; we’re doing a [nonfungible token] of the Robo Canine.

Was Robo Canine the supply of a variety of exhausting work through the manufacturing course of?

Wager: He’s positively all CGI. We had a stand-in canine after we had been filming. There are over eight CGI artists, over 2,000 hours of CGI artistry happening this factor. We have been doing this for months. There’s been a few instances we’re like, “It does not appear like an actual canine” or “It does not appear like he is pleased.” We wished the emotion to come back from the canine as nicely, and the eyes of the canine and the tongue of the canine, so there have been a variety of lengthy nights to get there.

Was Robo Canine the very first thing that was created for the spot?

Wager: First, we truly shot the spot, after which we created him.

Do you are feeling Robo Canine will assist the advert resonate with viewers?

Wager: It is a story of a canine that did not have a house that finds a house, proper? Final 12 months, over 23 million Individuals adopted a pet, so that is positively one thing that persons are going to be regarding, particularly on this COVID period. Sadly, some folks went again to the workplace and needed to give pets again to shelters, and that is why we’re tying in with the [Petfinder Foundation] as a result of we would like these pets to search out eternally properties. I believe it is a story that folks both skilled themselves of getting a pet or want to assist different pets get their eternally properties.

How did you are feeling if you first noticed the spot?

Wager: The primary time we noticed a tough minimize, we did not know what music we might placed on or not placed on, and the spot was good, and the emotion was good. However we simply felt prefer it might be one additional coronary heart tug, and that is after they put a few completely different tracks on, and all of us listened to [Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”]. Everybody’s like, “That is it.” It simply makes you cheer for the canine. You need the canine to catch the EV6 and the proprietor. Then, swiftly, it runs out of juice and also you’re [like] oh, my goodness, what occurred? And you then understand that the EV6 and the proprietor helped recharge the canine, and also you’re so pleased. Then the canine is so pleased within the automobile. After we noticed that, we all know, no matter what the reactions for almost all of the 100 million persons are, persons are going to love this. They will emotionally join with it. In a few of our early testing, that is already occurred.

Kia selected to launch this spot nicely earlier than the sport. What are the advantages of doing that?

Wager: This shall be our thirteenth advert now, and we have finished it many various methods. We have finished it the place we wait and do not do something, and we simply watch for the Tremendous Bowl day. There’s a variety of issues occurring if you’re watching the Tremendous Bowl at dwelling. You have obtained buddies over, you run to the fridge, you possibly can’t watch each single factor. What we discovered is we had been lacking a number of the folks if we waited. Should you begin the dialog earlier, then on Tremendous Bowl Sunday, you could have folks saying, “Let’s watch the Tremendous Bowl spot from Kia. I’ve seen that one.”

Marinkovic: The entire level, as Russell was saying, is absolutely about deciding what’s that second in time near Tremendous Bowl the place you possibly can ramp up that dialog, and what’s the snackable content material that you simply’re doing alongside the best way? It isn’t nearly dropping the spot on a sure day. However what else are you doing? How are you persevering with that dialog? How are you participating folks on the street to Tremendous Bowl and past?