Hyundai wants to build trust in EVs with a campaign that presents its latest electric vehicle as the newest–and best–point in human evolution.
One 60-second spot in the campaign for the brand’s Ioniq 5 EV crossover shows actor Jason Bateman hanging out at various points in history. He moves from sitting around as a caveman to speeding along in an Ioniq 5. “It’s been a long, long, long, long, long, really long journey,” he says from behind the wheel, “but worth it.”
It is the latest Hyundai spot for Bateman, who first began backing the brand in 2019.
The emphasis Hyundai is putting on evolution (the ad ends with a voiceover saying “Your journey at its most evolved”) is an attempt to show that Hyundai’s electric vehicle is “the best version” of electric vehicles, said Hyundai Chief Marketing Officer Angela Zepeda.
The brand also aims to “demystify” the EV with this campaign, said Barney Goldberg, executive creative director at Innocean, the agency that created the ads. The campaign’s two spots will air on TV Sunday during the NFL’s AFC and NFC championship games.
Hyundai is the latest brand to plug an EV with expensive marketing as automakers attempt to spur demand while pouring billions of dollars into EV development. The category remains niche, accounting for less than 3 percenet of auto sales in the U.S., according to Edmunds. The lukewarm acceptance of EVs in the states has to do with their higher upfront cost and the relatively low gas prices in the U.S., Ram Chandrasekaran, head of road transport at Wood Mackenzie, a consultancy specializing in the energy sector, stated in an email interview.
Hyundai is pointing to the affordability of its Ioniq 5, which “can take on Tesla head to head at a lower price point,” wrote Chandrasekaran. The base Ioniq 5 is priced at $41,190, while the most inexpensive Tesla Model Y starts at $60,440, according to Automotive News.
Lower prices are “where Hyundai has always hung its hat” to stand out, said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of Edmunds’ Insights. But Zepeda said the new campaign isn’t a return to the brand's past messaging that presented the brand as a cheap alternative.
Instead, Zepeda characterized the Ioniq’s message as “democratizing safety and technology for all at a price people can afford.” The brand is also seeking to appeal to a younger customer, she said.
Along with educating consumers about price, advertisers of electric vehicles are also tasked with addressing consumer's range anxiety—concerns about how far an EV can go before needing to be charged and potentially leaving the occupants stranded. Hyundai’s campaign highlights the Ioniq's charging capability with an ad that shows Bateman using the car’s two-way charging function to provide light and heat on a camping trip.
Chandrasekaran said the Ioniq is able to charge faster than competitors at a similar price point.
While Hyundai will run the ads in the NFL Playoffs—which is not cheap—it will skip the more expensive Super Bowl for the second straight year; the brand broke its five-year streak last year due to COVID-19. In light of microchip shortages broadly affecting inventory and global production in the automotive industry, Hyundai had to “make smart investments” and chose to focus on the long term, said Zepeda.
But Zepeda described the new campaign’s quality as being Super Bowl-worthy. Even though it won’t air in the Big Game, the new ads will still lure plenty of eyeballs because the playoffs are drawing huge ratings.
Zepeda says she is aware some Hyundai competitors will most likely be pushing their EVs during the Super Bowl. Last year GM ran two ads for its EVs.
Hyundai's campaign has seen “a typical amount of investment,” said Zepeda; the brand’s biggest launch was last year's Tuscon campaign, also featuring Bateman. The campaign will also air on YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
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