Postvisual digital campaign returns brilliant memories to Hyundai car drivers in Korea
A grey-haired taxi driver says a tearful goodbye to the trusty car that’s been his livelihood, and helped put his kid through college. A theater actor scraps the bashed-up sedan of his youth, which he used to court his now-wife.
These are two stories in “Brilliant Memories,” digital campaign for Hyundai Motor Company by Korea’s PostVisual that leverages on the strong emotional connection Koreans have with the iconic car brand. After all, it’s not only Americans who have a love affair with their cars.
In four short films for Hyundai, PostVisual’s creative team tracked down and retrieved the discarded cars of real-life people. Then they hired top Korean artists and sculptors to remake the junked cars into works of art, including a suitcase made of seat leather and a sofa with flashing headlights on its arm rests. Finally, they presented them to their former owners, surprising them and moving a few to tears.
By turning car parts into something the former owners would continue to use, the online campaign extends Hyundai’s “Live Brilliant” brand campaign, which focuses on how Hyundai vehicles are more than just cars that transport people from one place to another – but rather spaces where people share a variety of emotions and experiences, and are linked to memories of a part of your life.
The films were uploaded on Hyundai’s official YouTube channel in October 2014. Within two months, the campaign garnered a total of 5.95 million views, received wide coverage on television and in newspapers and magazines, and won the Korean Advertising & PR Practitioner’s Society 2014 Advertising of the Year award, earned the top digital media design medal at the Korean Design Awards. Hyundai went on to showcase the work at an art exhibit in January, in Seoul.
The campaign leverages the deep, emotional connection that Korean consumers, who’ve literally grown up with Hyundai, have with the brand. That long-term relationship is a strong differentiator for Korean company Hyundai, and helps set the brand apart from foreign competitors in the domestic market.
“The idea was to underscore to a broader audience how Hyundai Motor has been with Korean consumers throughout their lives,” said Jeehee Lee, Postvisual’s Chief Creative Officer.
The creative team searched for four people who represented drivers who can be found in every neighbourhood – from the retiring cab driver, to the new father, to the emigrant who sells her car to raise money for a new life abroad. For all of them, seeing their car again – in a changed form – brings a rush of memories and feelings.
For the cab driver, for example, who gets his cab’s backseat remade into a sofa, it is both poignant and all-new. “I finally get to sit in the back,” he says.