The ‘major sponsor’ of Australian Open 2017, Kia Motors has launched its multi-faceted ‘Power To Surprise’ leverage programme that spans various on- and off-line leverage strands for tennis fans around the world ranging from traditional advertising and athlete ambassador appearances, to courtside branding, at-event fan interactions, hospitality programmes and also providing the event’s vehicle fleet.
The Kia campaign, developed in harness with semi in-house agency Innocean, opened with a PR launch event which also acted as a handover ceremony for the official tournament vehicle fleet.
The event was fronted by tennis endorser Rafael Nadal and saw the unveiling of a giant Kia tennis racquet which will be displayed throughout the tournament for fan interaction at Melbourne Park.
Inspired by the umbrella ‘Everyone has the Power to Surprise’ theme, Kia is inviting visitors and fans at Melbourne Park to write their names on the racquet strings.
The huge racquet and Nadal also both feature in the activation’s flagship TV commercial which first aired in Australia on 2 January and features ballboys/ballgirls, line judges and various other tournament support staff as well as the star player.
The digital and social strands of the activation – which link through the #PowertoSurprise, #byEveryone, #kiatennis,#kiaambassador,#kiaaofleet and #ausopen hashtags – respond to tournament events in low-latency and real-time with a focus on brand relevant action such as games featuring ambassador Nadal,
Bottles into position. Fingers taped. Headband on. Tonight Kia Ambassador @RafaNadal plays on Rod Laver Arena. #GoRafa #AusOpen #KiaTennis pic.twitter.com/N054IlrImo
— Kia Australia (@kiaaustralia) January 17, 2017
A further activation strand is the return of the ‘Kia Open Drive’: a series of social content pieces (such as player Q&A’s) created in-car during the tournament as the Kia fleet drives players and officials to and from the event.
On the Kia Open Drive @TimeaOfficial went 7/7 on our name challenge.
How do you stack up? @Kia_Motors #KiaTennis pic.twitter.com/9r21VrtT7s
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 16, 2017
Of course, a central pillar of the partnership is vehicle supply and this year’s tournament sees the auto manufacturer hand over a fleet of 110 official tournament vehicles to Tennis Australia in a PR-driven ceremony in Melbourne that saw Kia global brand ambassador and former Australian Open champion Rafael Nadal had over the ceremonial key.
#Kia cars keep Australian Open moving for the 16th consecutive year! See our brand ambassador #RafaelNadal at the vehicle handover ceremony pic.twitter.com/ImWRu9eb6r
— Kia Motors Global (@Kia_Motors) January 17, 2017
This year’s vehicle fleet – which includes 50 Carnival MPVs, 40 Sorento CUVs and 20 Optima mid-size sedans – aims to ensure smooth and safe tournament transport for players, officials, support staff and VIPs.
This year’s Kia courtesy fleet, driven by more than 200 volunteer drivers who will notch up 400,000km, also sees the auto giant introduce its new Stinger sports sedan.
: @RafaelNadal helps unveil the new Kia Stinger, which makes its Southern Hemisphere debut #kiatennis @kiaaustralia pic.twitter.com/yGmBirZXeC
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 14, 2017
The vehicle had its world premiere at the beginning of January at the 2017 Detroit Auto Show and Kia is already rolling out a separate, model specific global marketing campaign for the flagship car.
All the models in the tournament fleet are also on display at Melbourne Park for the duration of the event in a branded space designed to showcasing the cars’ cutting edge technology and state-of-the-art styling to thousands of fans.
‘The Australian Open is Kia’s longest running major sports sponsorship, and as a proud sponsor we’re delighted to be a driving force behind the growth of the tournament, not only by providing safe, stylish and comfortable transportation for players and participants, but also by engaging with tennis fans worldwide with various on & off-line campaigns to share the excitement we are about to witness over next few weeks,’ said Bryan Cho, VP Overseas Marketing for Kia.
‘We are delighted once again to accept the fleet of Kia vehicles to help keep the Australian Open moving smoothly over the next few weeks, connecting visiting fans from around the world to the biggest annual sporting event in January,’ said Australian Open Tournament Director Craig Tiley.
‘It’s a huge logistical exercise to move all our players, officials, media and staff around Melbourne during the tournament and every year this is achieved thanks to Kia’s reliability and support.’
Comment:
Kia Motors has been a partner of the Australian Open – one off the biggest sports properties in the Asia Pacific – since way back in 2002: making it the car company’s longest continuously running sponsorship.
This year’s campaign follows on from Kia’s 2016 tournament activation strategy which blended its sports/entertainment partnerships and also featured Nadal in a campaign was built around the car company’s collaboration with 20th Century Fox’s X-Men movie series (see case study).
The objective behind both campaigns is part of the company’s umbrella objective of reinforcing Kia’s youthful and dynamic brand identity.
Other partnerships it uses to engage the same strategy range from the NBA and various football/soccer alliances such as its position as the official automotive partner of the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Football Championships.
In addition to the Kia alliance, The Australian Open’s other corporate partnerships include top tier sponsor Kia, as well as ANZ, Jacobs Creek and Rolex, plus partners Accor Hotels, Aperol Spritz, Blackmores, Canadian Club, Coca-Cola, Coopers, CPA, Emirates, Frabntelle, Haagen-Dazs, Hisense, IBM, K&L Gates, Lavazza, MasterCard, Medibank, City Of Melbourne, Optus, Toshiba, Wilson, William Hill, Woolworths and Yonex.
But please, if you genuinely want to run a youthful and dynamic sponsorship campaign, please think again about the post final sponsor speech slot. A faltering, dull and brand-name laden post-final presentation speech from the CEO not just gets in the way of the fans hearing from the players they are passionate about, but it also lacks any kind of authenticity and purpose.
Links:
Kia
https://www.youtube.com/user/KiaBUZZ
http://www.kia.com/worldwide/
http://www.kia-buzz.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Kiamotorswor…
https://plus.google.com/b/11694069743…
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kiamoto…
http://instagram.com/kiamotorsworldwide
Innocean
Australian Open
https://twitter.com/australianopen
https://www.instagram.com/australianopen/
https://www.facebook.com/AustralianOpen
http://sports.sina.com.cn/tennis/ausopen17/index.shtml
