Reuters Ties News Into 'Smart Thinking' Campaign For Hyundai
- by Laurie Petersen , May 1, 2007
In a somewhat unusual relationship, Reuters editors worked with company engineers to devise an algorithm that would trigger "smart thinking" stories based on keywords and attributes identified by Hyundai and its agency Carat Fusion/Los Angeles.
These stories range from topics on alternative fuel technology to innovative Hollywood movie launches to the latest smart cell phones. But the brush is broad enough to incorporate politics and other areas from the 30,000-or so stories Reuters publishes daily. No competitive brand screening is being done, and Reuters will continue to monitor the feed to see if the stories meet the definition, according to a Reuters spokesperson.
The campaign focuses on the launch of the Veracruz crossover SUV and will promote other Hyundai models as well. The target audience is early adopters, intellectuals and cultured professionals.
"We approached Reuters because of their demographic and they came back with the idea," said Jackie Watanabe, media supervisor for Carat Fusion/L.A.
As part of the media buy--whose terms were not disclosed--Hyundai got the rights to syndicate the "Smart thinking" stories on other Web sites, but no plans are now in place to do that, Watanabe said.
The campaign is the first to employ a recently upgraded Reuters.com platform developed by Unisys and Savvis, said Walker Jacobs, a senior vice president of Reuters Media. He said Reuters.com has a designated team of editors dedicated to packaging content in commercially appealing ways.
"We obviously have a very clear church and state relationship," he said, when asked about the editorial/advertising cooperation.
The campaign will also run on The Reuters Sign in Times Square, broadcasting the stories appearing in the Hyundai virtual brand channel to approximately 1.5 million people daily. An RSS feed and mobile site are also part of the program. Hyundai has an exclusive on the virtual brand channel for 30 days, and will continue the campaign through July 31.
"This is an incredibly important customer for us," said Jacobs, "and it's a partnership we're excited about."
This is not the first time Reuters has packaged news content for advertising purposes. Diet Coke ran a campaign around "good news," while NASDAQ ran one tied into different stories for different stages of investing. However, these efforts were done manually--not using the new dynamic content generation afforded by the algorithm.
