• by Tanya Gazdik , Yesterday

Runaway horses are fast, and when you have a giant ranch, it’s a lot for any dog to keep up -- especially one getting a little gray in the face. 

Enter Kia Telluride X-Pro, which is “built for the greater,” according to the automaker. “With features like off-road vehicle display, 9.1-inch ground clearance, and all-terrain tires, the Telluride is ready to help take on whatever the day brings. Like helping your best friend do their job even better.”

The cinematic 60-second spot “Horse Herder” from David&Goliath was shot at Chamberlin Ranch in Los Olivos, California, which covers 8,000 spectacular acres of land on the Central Coast. It is a historic, family-owned working cattle ranch. The dog star is Teddy, a 7-year-old Australian Shepherd. 

There are 30-second and 15-second cutdowns, as well as additional 15-second spots that concentrate on the rugged SUV’s attributes, like front recovery hooks and 9.1 inch ground clearance. 

“When we are doing our creative, we try to find a way to make the Kia the hero in the spot, as opposed to just in it for the sake of it,” Russell Wager, Kia America vice president of marketing, tells Marketing Daily. "I have a herding dog. I'm partial to dogs, and it's not easy for them to do their job, [especially] when they get older. So I think it's a nice, warm story, and at the same time, it allows us to demonstrate that the Telluride X-Pro, once again, can go all over a ranch.”

The ranch includes some challenging terrain, and the Telluride conquered it all, Wager says. 

Kia America will not be airing a spot during the Super Bowl LX broadcast. Instead, the automaker's efforts in support of the all-new 2027 Telluride SUV will air during three key sports moments slated for this calendar year: the Winter Olympics; the NBA All-Star Game; and the FIFA World Cup.

The strategy was based on the visibility of the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup as well as the brand’s long-standing partnership with the NBA, Wager says. 

The ROI on those three properties will outweigh a single Super Bowl spot, he says. And it makes more sense when there's more than one story to tell. 

Many Olympics viewers watch most of the 10 days, he says.

“And they'll see our message, and they'll get repetition, so we'll get the frequency up, as well as some reach,” Wager says. “Now, it’s not going to be over 100 million people watching the Olympics, but, you know, 30 million-plus a night is pretty good.”

Add to that 5 million to 10 million viewers of the NBA All-Star Game.

“So we're going to get the frequency up, and I think that's going to help us for that return. That's what we're looking for, the frequency element.”