KIA, a top tier major sponsor of the Australian Open 2019 (14 to 27 January 14), activated its tournament rights through a multi-pronged programme that ranged from global, regional and local brand work, to a new model launch campaign, as well as on- and off-site and on- and off-line activity.
Open Up The Surprise – Global Brand
Among the key international activation threads from Kia Motors Worldwide was a global initiative fronted by long-time athlete ambassador Rafael Nadal.
The Spanish tennis super star has been working with Kia since 2004 in an athlete ambassador role that sees him promote Kia’s umbrella ‘The Power to Surprise’ platform worldwide.
This ongoing marketing strand leveraged the 2019 Australian Open from 6 January with a flagship ‘Open Up The Surprise’ strand that was led by a hero 60-second commercial
that was backed by two supporting 30-second spots (‘Open Up’ and ‘Surprise’).
These were followed by the roll-out of a ‘Drive To Succeed’ series of Nadal fronted online videos, starting on 13 January with episodes launched as the tournament progressed, that was promoted across the car company’s international and local market channels.
‘Get Mean’ – Local Model Launch
Another parallel campaign, this time a national interrogated one from Kia Motors Australia called ‘Get Ready To Get Mean’, launched the car brand’s new Cerato GT model and again the work was fronted Nadal and was led by a playful commercial featuring the player and various others recreating car noises in order to promote the sporty prowess of the new turbo-charged vehicle.
The spearhead spot saw close ups of various people’s faces as they made the sounds of a car: the noises were then edited to create the overall sound of a racing car.
This campaign launched in Australian on the tournament’s official broadcaster Channel Nine and marked the start of Kia’s role a lead advertiser for the network’s first year of broadcasting the Australian Open.
Created by agency Innocean Australia, the creative aimed to show a ‘more provocative’ side of the brand.
The spot was released in harness with a matching immersive digital gaming experience (https://getmean.com.au/microphone) to demonstrate and bring to life to the players that ‘the meaner you growl, the faster the Cerato GT will go’.
The campaign spanned digital, out of home and social platforms, as well as on court-side screens and the game experience at the Australian Open.
“This campaign injects a whole lot of fun into the category and a bit of attitude into the Kia brand,” said ECD Steve Jackson.
“You can’t make the sound of the Cerato GT without pulling a mean face and you can’t see the game without wanting to have a go yourself.”
This campaign was developed for Kia Motors Australia COO Damien Meredith, general manager Manuel Tyras and brand manager: Andrew Phan by Innocean Australia, with post production by Heckler, game developers Code on Canvas, activation partner Bastion and media by Innocean and Havas.
On- & Off-Line – Global & Local
Kia also celebrated its flagship tennis property by rolling out several on- and off-line programs for tennis fans around the world and in Australia to enjoy.
One of these was an ‘AO Selfie Contest’: offering tennis lovers a chance to share their favourite tournament moments on social media.
Another strand saw a total of 68 lucky Kia customers from 28 different markets invited to the tournament where they took part in an exclusive tennis clinic with professionals and scooped tickets to the men’s singles semi-finals.
Kia also invited 30 AO international ball kids to Melbourne to enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime chance to take part in a Grand Slam tennis tournament from courtside.
20 kids from Korea and 10 children from India were selected after national competitions were held in 2018 to select the best 30 ball kids from these regions.
While the local market ‘Kia Tennis Passport Competition’ offered a chance to win a trip for two to the tournament.
On- & Off-Site – Melbourne Activation
Kia simultaneously ran a series of both on-site and off-site events, experiences and brand spaces at and around the Melbourne event itself from the Grand Slam Oval, to Federation square and Southern Cross
For example, at the Grand Slam Oval tennis fans were challenged to test their ‘Caraoke’ through augmented reality with Thanasi Kokkinakis and Daria Gavrilova.
Supplier
Plus, as a major sponsor, Kia is also a key to9urament supplier and the 2019 event saw the auto brand provide 130 vehicles and 350 drivers for more than 20,000 tournament trips covering a total of 450,000kms.
2019 marked the 18th consecutive year that Kia Motors Corporation supplied a fleet of vehicles for the tournament and the official vehicle handover ceremony took place in the second week of January at Federation Square in Melbourne.
With Kia ambassador Rafael Nadal present to hand over the symbolic keys the ceremony was amplified across the tournament and the car company’s channels.
“It has been Kia’s honour for almost two decades to be a proud sponsor of one of the world’s greatest sporting events, and that commitment has not wavered. We now look forward with anticipation to the next two weeks of competition and believe that this year will be the best event ever,” said James Cho, President of Kia Motors Australia at the ceremony.
“Kia has always been much more than just a sponsor of the Australian Open, they are a highly valued member of our tennis family and have helped us build the extraordinary growth of the tournament during this time. The Kia fleets ferrying the players around Melbourne during January, and the tremendous activations for fans onsite at Melbourne Park, have become synonymous with the tournament and an important part of the AO experience for our players,” added Craig Tilley, Tournament Director of the Australian Open.
Comment:
Taken together the different activation strands offer up a mixed tone: from the update delight of ‘Surprises’, to the playful fun of ‘Get Mean’ and the more serious side of ‘Drive To Succeed’.
This illustrates how Kia leverages its tournament rights for different purposes and in different places.
While the universal, global brand work feels a little unfocused and unstructured to us, ‘Get Mean’ certainly succeeds in introducing the new Cerato GT in a bold and playful way
Kia’s longest standing global sports partnership, the Asia-Pacific tennis Grand Slam has been a Kia property since 2002 and, since it first put pen to paper on an AO deal Kia has played a key role in supporting players and promoting the growth of tennis worldwide.
This has been backed up through its more than a decade long, global endorser tie-up with Nadal and its local Australian ambassador alliance with Leyton Hewitt.
Its major sponsor tie-up with the Australian Open is Kia’s longest running sports sponsorship and its biggest in the company’s ‘home’ Asia pacific region
This year’s multi-thread activation programme reflects Kia’s 2018 Australian Open work where it leveraged its tournament rights by applying a similar multi-strand strategy that saw the car company run campaigns fronted by ambassador Nadal and Hewitt that included the launch of its Stinger model (see case study).
The Australian Open, Kia’s longest running sports partnership and its biggest in Asia Pacific, is just one of the flagship properties in a sports sponsorship portfolio that also includes the NBA, football/soccer alliances such as its role as the official automotive partner of the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Football Championship, the LPGA, plus tie-ups outside the sports space such as an alliance with 20th Century Fox.
Links:
Kia Tennis
Kia Australia
https://twitter.com/kiaaustralia
https://www.instagram.com/kiaaustralia/
https://www.youtube.com/user/KiaAustralia
https://www.facebook.com/KiaAustralia
https://plus.google.com/+kiaaustralia
Innocean Australia
Bastion
http://bastion.com.au/
Havas
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