Kia Motors has been operating Kia BUZZ, a global business blog of the automaker, as a key marketing tool. / Courtesy of Kia Motors |
By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
Improving their corporate image is a major concern for companies today. And Kia Motors seems to have secured an efficient channel to promote the company and its products ― through online and mobile media.
The carmaker has recently celebrated two recent public relations (PR) awards. Kia BUZZ, a global business blog of the automaker, was awarded the best international PR prize at the 2008 Korea PR Awards, and the Web site its latest model, the Soul, also received first prize for brand promotion at the 2008 Web Award Korea.
"The Web site won this year's award as the first global business blog run by a Korean company," said the Korea Public Relations Association, host of the Korea PR Award.
"Interest is high these days in communication with customers through various Internet media," Kia said. "Kia BUZZ is a move to strengthen the online connection, which the company will focus on building up in global markets."
Nearly 110,000 Internet users from over 170 countries have visited the English-language blog since its launch last year.
Responses were stronger among Web-savvy Korean customers, as the Web site of Soul has attracted 2.2 million visitors since its opening in May, before the local launch of the crossover compact model in September.
In the run-up to the vehicle's debut in the United States, Kia is currently pushing an ambitious and unconventional campaign.
Kia Motors America signed on as the first advertiser for the mobile advertising platform of imeem, a fast-emerging online social music service, which is currently available only to the G1 phone sold by T Mobile. The platform is designed to work on Google's new operating system, Android.
In the pre-launching campaign for the Soul, a Kia profile and ads will be displayed on imeem's own Web site, and there will also be a new Kia Soul-branded streaming radio station.
"When you have one of these radio station opportunities, you really want to know who your focus target is and select music that's appropriate," David Schoonover, Kia Motors America Customer Relationship Marketing Manager, was quoted as saying.
Schoonover said the growing popularity of mobile applications like Apple's iPhone makes mobile advertising much more important than before.
"Mobile marketing, from an online advertising standpoint, is still very much an evolving space and I think it's been slow to get off the ground," he said. "But one of the most interesting things to us at Kia is the use of applications in mobile devices seems to be a catalyst that is helping mobile marketing move to the next level."
The Soul, a sporty model mainly aimed at younger drivers, is scheduled to reach U.S. customers early next year. The vehicle made its official U.S. debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show, which started last Friday and continues through Sunday.
Kia's vice president of sales, Tom Loveless, called the Soul the company's "halo car," and "a brand-defining vehicle," saying its style "simply didn't fit a single category."
hckim@koreatimes.co.kr
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[단독] 르노삼성, 본사 모델로 한국 공략
