• by Tanya Gazdik , Yesterday

Actress Scarlett Johansson is debuting as Hyundai's new brand voice. 

Her first effort is the automaker’s latest “Hope on Wheels” campaign, highlighting the brand’s efforts to support pediatric cancer patients and their families and to fight to end childhood cancer. 

Johansson narrates “Little Warrior,” which helps bring to life the courage, resilience and determination that define “The Mark of a Warrior” national campaign.  Her voice will extend across future brand campaigns and initiatives, according to the automaker. 

The effort was developed by Hyundai’s AOR, Innocean USA, while Hyundai's media agency, Canvas, coordinated the media buys.

Creative transforms the Hyundai Hope on Wheels handprint into a symbol of strength, resilience and hope in the fight to end childhood cancer. The spot features the tradition of warriors marking themselves before a challenge.

A dedicated campaign hub, HyundaiWarriors.com, serves as the campaign’s digital home, featuring the stories of five childhood cancer survivors who serve as the faces of the campaign.

“Hope on Wheels” debuts Sept. 9 with hero placements surrounding the opening game of the professional football season. Both the 60-second spot and a 30-second cutdown will run across broadcast, streaming, digital and social channels throughout National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in September and beyond. 

Sean Gilpin, CMO, Hyundai Motor America, says talking to the patients and their families helped inform this year’s creative. 

“It's kind of a lonely process to go in for chemo treatment,” Gilpin tells Marketing Daily. “And the kids, these ambassadors, said, ‘What we want to do is unlock this kind of inner warrior spirit,’ and that insight was really, really cool, and it gave us something to hold on to.”

As part of the effort, in collaboration with Brave Gowns, Hyundai transforms traditional hospital gowns into Warrior Gowns, with armor-inspired designs to help children feel strong and empowered throughout treatment. 

“One of the things that we learned was that the kids really feel vulnerable when they're in those hospital gowns,” Gilpin says. “So we worked with the suppliers of all the gowns in the children's hospitals, and we've created nine warrior costumes that were designed by our ambassadors, and we've donated 2,000 at our Southern California hospitals. Our dealers were so moved by this effort, we now are doing it at all hospitals across the country, and the dealers are matching those donations so that any child going into a children's ward to face this battle gets that little extra boost of confidence by putting on this warrior gown before their treatment.”

Hyundai will host Warrior Rallies at select professional football games and soccer matches and other live events across the United States, bringing together patients, survivors, healthcare professionals, dealers and local communities to raise awareness for the fight against childhood cancer.

The automaker is also launching the Miles for the Warriors Challenge in partnership with Strava for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, encouraging people to run, walk, wheel, bike, hike or swim to support the 400,000 children diagnosed with cancer globally each year. 

Participants hit 400,000 collective miles within 24 hours of launch, and Hyundai donated $1 million dollars to Hyundai Hope on Wheels. Hyundai offered another $1 million if 800,000 miles was reached and two days later, the community raced past that mark. Now with around 100,000 participants, over 3.3 million miles have been logged.

Partnerships across sports, entertainment, broadcast, streaming and audio platforms will further extend awareness.

Since 1998, Hyundai Hope on Wheels has contributed more than $300 million to pediatric cancer research and treatment, and is one of the largest nonprofit funders of pediatric cancer research in the United States.