Hyundai is Back in the Super Bowl

Hyundai will have two 30-second commercials for the Genesis Coupe on the Super Bowl in February.

The company said on Dec. 29 one ad will feature “precision driving” by a professional racecar driver, with music from classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The car will seem to “dance” to the music, the company said. A second ad will have a different sound track, Hyundai said.

It’s easy to criticize advertising with nothing at stake, but my take on Super Bowl advertising in general is that it’s a giant waste for all but the biggest, wealthiest advertisers. For smaller car companies, it’s a sign of Big Car Company-itis.

To me, an ad on the Super Bowl says “awareness.” It assumes, for instance, you’ve already got a well-established brand image. People know what to expect of your brand. A lot of people already consider it favorably. You’ve got a new product, but before people can buy it, they’ve got to be made aware it’s available.

That’s not a very good description of Hyundai. Without any research to back it up, I’m guessing brand awareness isn’t real high. And for those who are aware, the brand has a lot of negative baggage, from bad-old, poor-quality days. Nowadays, Hyundai’s quality is good, according to J.D. Power and Associates.

So a Hyundai Super Bowl ad has a lot to accomplish in 30 seconds: to tell people that what they’re seeing is a Hyundai; it’s pretty; Hyundais aren’t all econoboxes any more; the quality is good, despite what you may have heard; this is a new model; it’s powerful; it also handles well, it’s not simply powerful; it’s classy.

That’s too much to do. Still, Hyundai probably did their homework, and convinced themselves that a lot more people would put them on the shopping list, if only they were aware of what the company has to offer. They also introduced the Genesis sedan with Super Bowl ads a year earlier, so they must have liked the results.

I don’t disagree entirely. I just assume that the Super Bowl takes a really big chunk out of the rest of the budget, at the expense of running more ads, more frequently, across more media, with greater repetition, over a greater length of time. Maybe Hyundai has a big enough ad budget to do all those things and advertise on the Super Bowl, too, in which case more power to them – and handling, and quality, and brand reputation, and awareness and consideration.