Commentary
Hyunda's Shannon Talks Sales, Showrooms, Super Bowl Ads
- by Karl Greenberg , Staff Writer, January 27, 2014
NEW ORLEANS -- Hyundai Motor America has been holding court during NADA in the nicest hotel the Big Easy has to offer: the Ritz-Carlton on Canal. And strolling through it,
the first thing you experience are luxurious marble floors and a scent that, if you're from Brooklyn, is as close to heaven as you get before the Big Sleep. It's the right place for the Fountain
Valley, Calif. automaker to be.
Steve Shannon, vice president-marketing points out that Hyundai isn't a luxury brand, but has certainly staked
a claim in the upper reaches of the so-called mass market, where luxury and non-luxury brands bump into each other like rubber duckies in a fountain.
MediaPost Live spoke to Shannon on the verdant patio of the Ritz (with, yes, a fountain splashing in the background sans duckies) about the Super Bowl, sales and dealerships. Check out the
video on this, our NADA coverage site.
By the way, The automaker has two 30-second spots coming up in the Big Game, one for Elantra and one for the Genesis Coupe, which rolls into dealerships this Spring. Though now would be a good time for AWD, given the weather, at least we’re I’m from in the Northeast.
A lot of automakers advertising in the game are doing 60-second spots, but Hyundai is doing two 30-second ads. Shannon says that tactic makes a lot more sense, saying, in essence, you don't
need 60 seconds, and you don't need to pay twice as much. "And you only get a 10% improvement [in effectiveness]," says Shannon.
The automaker has also unified the dealership website system toward a consistent look and function. And, he says, the automaker will have a team of
marketers and agency people from Innocean USA interacting with fan social media behavior. He also talks about how dealers are investing. Check out the video, as they say. 
Karl Greenberg writes about automotive, consumer-packaged-goods, sports, and travel for “Marketing Daily.” Prior to this, he was the automotive editor at "Brandweek" magazine. He was also the Internet advertising technology writer for "Adweek," and petrochemical editor at "Chemical Market Reporter". You can reach Karl at karl@mediapost.com.
