• by Karl Greenberg , November 3, 2012

What timing for “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” as the program spent the week holed up at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theatre. Monday’s show was cancelled, but the rest of the week went on as planned, and was pretty much booked solid (God knows how people got there, if not by bicycle, which is how I went.) But it worked out for Hyundai, which months ago put a deal together around the show's nightly music feature to tout the new 2013 Santa Fe crossover as the vehicle for "Helping Parents to Rock." In addition to signage on the show's music stage, there were a series of humorous faux PSA's around the idea that parents must confront existential anemia pursuant to raising kids.  

The way it worked is that when the music guests -- Jack Black, Alana Morrisette, and Alicia Keys, for example -- took the Kimmel co-pilot chair, they would make a mention before the break that people would see a very important message pertaining to the syndrome. 

"The genesis of this was that we had gotten to know some of Kimmel’s people; we had a big interest in the music side of the show, and about six or seven months ago, we had a meeting with their head of music programming, Doug Deluca," says Hyundai Motor America VP marketing Steve Shannon. He tells Marketing Daily that word came down about the Brooklyn series half a year back. "With the buzz about [the borough's new sports and entertainment venue] The Barclay Center, and Jimmy being from there, and the famous musicians who would perform, we knew the ratings would be usually big."

The show was looking for a limited number of sponsors, and "for us, the timing was perfect for the launch of the new Santa Fe, which is what we often look at up front." It also aligned with the Santa Fe positioning around families and the theme that parents don't have to give up their passions, but that younger parents can involve kids in whatever they like to do, which the ads exaggerate. 

Each of the 90-second "PSA's" -- the others feature Tenacious D, and Travis Parker -- include 10-second bumpers showing a Santa Fe customized with rocker theme. "We launched one per week a month ago," says Shannon, who says the Kimmel viewer demographic hits the sweet spot for the new vehicle. "It's late 30's early 40's, skewing a little more male; it's good numbers, and since it's late night, it also has a slightly hipper sensibility, which we like because we want this vehicle -- in a sea of SUVs, which aren't terribly differentiated -- to have a different edge to it."