• by Tanya Gazdik , Staff Writer, December 28, 2022

Kia America is expanding its partnership with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The automaker will donate $8 for every new Kia vehicle that is purchased or leased at authorized Kia dealerships, and delivered to retail customers, between Nov. 11 and Dec. 31, with a guaranteed minimum donation of $1 million to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.  

To publicize the effort, for the first time in the hospital’s history, a TV spot was filmed on-site at St. Jude in Memphis, Tennessee. In addition to airing on television, the video will be available on the St. Jude in-house television network.

Created by David&Goliath, Kia’s creative agency of record, the “Season of Giving Back” campaign gives children at St. Jude and their parents the gift of a virtual trip to the North Pole without ever having to leave the comfort and safety of the St. Jude campus. 

The effort is part of the automaker’s larger “Accelerate The Good” program. It includes a 60-second spot, “Holiday Joyride.” The campaign will also feature broadcast radio, OOH, print, point-of-sale and social media extensions along with 30-second, 15-second and 6-second cutdowns for use on digital platforms.

The commercial opens with a St. Jude patient sitting in the backseat of the EV6, which “travels” through a tunnel of red and green star-shaped arches created by the curved screens. The LED screens slowly transition to depict a star-filled night sky as a personalized welcome message appears featuring the patient’s name. 

The goal of the effort is to provide holiday cheer to patients and their families, says Russell Wager, vice president, marketing, Kia America.

"A lot of the kids can't get out, so we brought the holiday lights to them,” Wager tells Marketing Daily. "They got a nice three-plus minute experience as if they were going out looking at the lights.”

The $1 million-plus donation will be the brand’s third donation to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital this year as part of Kia’s “Accelerate The Good” charitable initiative, which has donated more than $14 million to various causes since 2019.

Kia did some research with customers on which charities resonate with them and St. Jude placed high on the list, Wager says.

“We're trying to make sure that our customers are seeing that we're supporting groups that are important to them,” he says.