Hyundai gears up for another Super Bowl run

Hyundai will keep its Super Bowl ad run going in 2019, making it the eleventh time in the past 12 years that the brand has advertised during the game.

Hyundai, the league's official automotive sponsor, will run a 60-second spot in the first quarter in addition to a 30-second pregame commercial.

The brand also will engage fans with Super Bowl experiential marketing activities in Atlanta. The game takes place Feb. 3 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Hyundai has leveraged the Super Bowl platform to tell stories that go beyond typical product messaging to stress the brand's values.

Before this year's Super Bowl, Hyundai marketing chief Dean Evans said the brand has plenty of time to tout its vehicles throughout the year. Consumers, he said, expect more on advertising's biggest stage.

During the 2018 Super Bowl, the automaker spotlighted its nonprofit Hyundai Hope on Wheels, which is focused on finding a cure for pediatric cancer. A year earlier, Hyundai's spot virtually transported U.S. soldiers stationed in Poland to Houston's NRG Stadium and reunited them with their families through 360-degree video pods.

Evans said a car isn't needed in an ad to raise the profile of a brand. When Hyundai ran the military spot in 2017, Evans said owners posted online or sent emails and letters saying they were proud to own a Hyundai.

Evans said this outpouring was convincing proof that Hyundai was on the right track with more human stories. He called the "Hope on Wheels" spot a "brand differentiator" instead of a "vehicle differentiator."

At the Super Bowl, "consumers expect companies to make a stand," Evans said in January. "Saying something with a global point of view at Super Bowl is more applicable than even launching a car, or telling everybody you've got 40 cars for sale. That's why we're really comfortable coming to the Super Bowl and not having a car in the spot, but having a point of view."

Hyundai's U.S. sales through October fell 0.4 percent to 545,444 vehicles.