• by Karl Greenberg , September 3, 2013

Lots of brands have been playing around with Vine since the Twitter-owned short-video platform launched in January. 

That includes automakers like Nissan and Honda, the former running a consumer-sourced effort for Versa Note, and the latter running a summer retail program on the platform. Hyundai has now also leaped into the fray with a Vine campaign to put the six-second spotlight on the muscular (429-horsepower) Genesis R-Spec variant. The effort, by Hyundai's AOR Huntington Beach-based Innocean USA, comprises some 17 Vines, with five of them launching on Tuesday on Vine and Hyundai's other social platforms; the others are on deck.  

Tom Pettus, VP/creative director at Innocean, tells Marketing Daily that since the standard for measuring engine off-the-block performance is based on how long it takes a car to go from 0-60 mph. Vine's six-second video standard, he says, is the right place to demonstrate that since the car hits 60 in under six seconds. "Vine seemed like perfect place to have fun with that."

The spots don't actually show the car, just the instrument cluster, with a focus on the speedometer. When the car hits 60, we cut to a guy in the back seat (all vids feature a performer who calls himself “Circus”) in different costumes reacting absurdly to the acceleration. 

And true to the Vine aesthetic, the vids -- done with Concrete Media -- were shot entirely on an iPhone, then uploaded sans editing. “We uploaded them so fast that client approval happened in real-time,” says Pettus.

“When we looked at it, we saw an opportunity to experiment and have fun. But it has to be relevant to the brand, or in this case the car model." He says the videos, which don't show the car or nameplate, were a good fit for the R-Spec because the car "Flies a little under the radar." 

The Vines will benefit from buzz with both Twitter and Tumblr as logical co-conduits. Pettus says that the idea is both to reach the car's fans through Hyundai's platforms like Facebook, where the videos will also be embedded, but also to raise awareness both through buzz and promotion. "We think of it as bite-sized entertainment, but, strategy-wise, it's also to [speak to] those who didn't know Hyundai had this kind of car."