The NBA’s biggest name addresses the doubters and sceptics in a new Kia campaign that aims to convince that the Cavalier’s star really does drive a Kia.
The latest integrated campaign in LeBron’s ongoing celebrity endorsement series for the Korean car manufacturer (and official automotive partner of the NBA) is led by three new commercials.
The first spot, which aired on national TV and was posted on Kia YouTube channel in early December, sees Lebron addresses a real consumer tweet from a sceptical member of the public wagering $10m that the small forward doesn’t ever ‘roll up to the games’ in his Kia K900.
The tweet is likely a doubting response to Kia’s December 2014 comemrcial featuring LeBron arriving at the Cavaliers and pulling in to his parking spot in a Kia900.
The new ad is the first of three spots in which the NBA superstar will take on the sceptics – all connected through the campaign’s ongoing #FitForAKing hashtag.
The campaign is supported across Kia’s social platforms – including on Facebook, but it hasn’t yet been posted to @KingJames own personal 25.6m Twitter followers.
The campaign has been developed in harness with agency David & Goliath.
Comment
LeBron has been fronting ads for Kia since 2014 and since then elements of the public have been as sceptical of this sports star/car pairing as they were about Tiger Woods’s partnership with Buick which dates back to 2003.
Authenticity and transparency are key facets of any contemporary sponsorship campaign.
After all, it is vital that n increasingly sceptical public has some sense of believability about the relationship between a brand and the athlete’s who endorse it (and the properties it partners with).
So this campaign aims to take a distinctly direct approach to addressing the issue head-on.
(We imagine that LeBron probably has a few other, non Kia cars too.)
In addition to its official partnership with the NBA itself – the Kia Optima is the Official Vehicle of the NBA, the brand is official title partner of the Kia NBA Tip-Off 2015, Kia Performance Awards, Kia Race to the MVP ladder and the presenting partner of both the Rookie Ladder and the #KiaTopPlay highlights – the auto marquee also works LeBron’s fellow baller Blake Griffin as a brand ambassador for its current series of comic basketball-related ads (see case study).
Other key sponsorships within Kia’s portfolio range from the LPGA and female golf star Michelle Wie
Links
Kia & LeBron Partnership:
http://www.kia.com/us/en/content/why-…
Kia Facebook:
Kia Tumblr:
Kia Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Kia
#FitForAKing
Kia Instagram:
http://instagram.com/kiamotorsusa/
Kia Google+:
https://plus.google.com/+kia/posts
Kia Pinterest:
http://www.pinterest.com/kiamotorsusa/
NBA:
David & Goliath:
