Hyundai attempts tear-jerker through long-form video

Giving hard sell a miss, the brand tries to build emotional equity. We explore the why - and why now.

The recent digital ad is primarily incentivising the audience to hold on to their old Hyundai vehicles because of its sentimental value, instead of preaching about their latest product or offers/ discounts.

The 'Brilliant Moments with Hyundai' is a corporate campaign that celebrates Hyundai's journey of 20 years in India. According to the brand, it's an effort to thank and extend its gratitude to the 5.3 million plus customers who made the company a part of their lives and those 'Brilliant Moments'.

This Brilliant Moments with Hyundai (BMH) digital campaign aims to invoke nostalgic memories to connect with all Hyundai customers

The Brilliant Moments Campaign will provide a unique experience through various forms of experiential marketing, sales, and service initiatives at all Hyundai touchpoints and invite the customers of the Santro, Accent and i10 to share their 'Brilliant Moment' stories.

This three-minute plus video, a first step in a series of many aimed at an attitudinal transformation of sorts among car owners in India challenges what a conventional car service is

"The Brilliant Moments campaign will increase brand affinity, brand confidence and brand trust which will have a long-term impact in brand building," informs Puneet Anand, senior general manager and group head - marketing, Hyundai Motor India Ltd.

Puneet Anand

Apart from this "straight-from-the-heart" digital campaign, the 360 degree integrated campaign will also be promoted on TV, Print and digital. While the brand will be using all social and digital platforms, it is are also promoting and collecting stories through WhatsApp, a dedicated microsite - www.BrilliantMoments.in, email, and special letterboxes placed throughout the robust dealership network of Hyundai.

Among the stories that came in, Hyundai would select ten stories that would be made into films and promoted on the microsite for voting.

When asked whether he feels this is the right time to go ahead with such a campaign, Anand says, "The Brilliant Moments campaign will last for four months and will culminate with the launch of a very important and awaited Contemporary Family Car - AH2 (code name) during the festival season.

"The Evolution of a Revolution is in Hyundai's DNA. We became the fastest Indian auto manufacturer to roll out 8 Million cars in 19 Years and 9 Months and we aim to roll out 10 million units in first half of 2021. We have constantly pushed the boundaries and taken on challenges at every step. This emotional recalling in the #BrilliantMoments campaign is our promise of becoming lifetime partners in automobiles and beyond," Anand informs.

The emotionally connecting Brilliant Moments with Hyundai Campaign is aimed at all of the brand's past and present customers across all TGs. The brand aims at cashing in on hero-content where the focus is to create an emotional connect with the brand rather than its products.

"We wanted a campaign where the customers can emotionally connect with Hyundai and share their stories with us so that we could recreate those #BrilliantMoments for them," briefs Anand.

Interestingly, in the current scenario, it's not just in the auto segment but brands from the other segments are also increasingly banking on on what they choose to call 'brand films'.

"We call it a Corporate Brand Film. We have just released the first film on June 27th - 'The Deal with Accent'. In the first week of July, we will be releasing a second film - 'Army with Santro'. The campaign will be rolled out in phases," Anand adds.

Vivek Srivastava

Saminder Ghai

The only scene where the brand actually makes an appearance in the first video (the entire 4 minute 49-second ad), is when the son uncovers the old car inside the garage. "Broadly, we were aiming to bring back the nostalgia around the brand. The communication alone (the landmark of the brand's completion of 20 years in the country) is very cold and manufacturing oriented. Hence, we were looking at falling back upon the feelings of people around the brand from a nostalgic perspective. Therefore, it needed to be softened/ emotional," says Vivek Srivastava, joint managing director, Innocean Worldwide India, the agency behind the campaign.

"We wanted to steer clear of the transactional part of the communication. We wanted to make it very humane and relatable," shares Saminder Ghai, senior creative director, Innocean Worldwide.

"So, the TG is most likely the ones who are on their way to buy new cars and someone who has lived in the last era of the company's legacy i.e. the past 20 years," Ghai adds.

Hit or miss?

We asked the experts if the new campaign succeeds in striking that old nostalgic cord.

Gopa Kumar, executive vice president, Isobar, feels that it's been a long time since he's seen such a refreshing long-format ad on digital which is also well-executed.

Gopa Kumar

Rajesh Lalwani

Kumar points out, "The narrative is very simple, but it touches the right note throughout. It does take you on a nostalgic journey as well, which I believe everyone would have been on at some time or the other. The emphasis on smaller, but important moments, connecting to the bigger brand narrative, is really nice".

"It does also have a subtle and nicely crafted brand integration of the New Creta and Accent (which is available in a new avatar in India). Brand building initiatives, such as this, go a long way in connecting to newer audiences and also reaffirming faith in brand Hyundai within its core consumers which, in turn, will help them to drive more sales in the future," Kumar opines.

It is indeed true; we tend to recall parts of entire life through a selection of key memories. On that note, Rajesh Lalwani, CEO, Scenario Consulting, a brand consultancy, says, "Cars, just like homes, have had deep relationships with families. People used to hand-over the keys of their first cars to new owners with moist eyes."

"The campaign is born of this powerful insight and uses the featured story as a call to action from past customers to share their memories. For a generation running on a treadmill, often treating both people and things as commodities and disposables, it is a great reminder to pause, relive good memories and, more importantly, ponder over the value of relationships over things," he adds.

Lalwani further illustrates, "The music touches a chord; production value is excellent; however, on one hand, somehow the story still feels a bit incomplete; the opportunity, after having evoked a strong emotion, was to have become a catalyst to the relationship between the son and the father."

He concludes by saying, "Somehow, one would have expected more than a mere hug, that too prompted by the father. On the other hand, I feel tighter editing would have made storytelling even more powerful."