The Kia Niro is a so-called brand builder model for the Korean automotive brand, which means that the Niro needs a campaign with broad-reach media and specific reasons to believe. The reason to believe for the Niro is the so-called autonomous emergency brake assist system that brakes automatically to avoid accidents. Knowing people don’t associate the Kia Niro with technological excellence, we deliberately chose to focus our campaign on a technological feature as a reason to believe. In line with the Kia brand story of ‘the power to surprise’, we need to communicate this intelligent safety innovation in a surprising way. And since the Kia technology operates with a human need in mind, the campaign should do the exact same thing: be more than a campaign and be relevant for the consumer.

We all know it: when we fast forward the commercial break, it’s almost impossible to stop at exactly the right moment. Spoiling the fun and making you miss important moments in your favourite series or film. So we created “The Kia Commercial Brake”, a spot at the end of each commercial break that warns you to stop in time before the movie starts again. Just like the Kia autonomous emergency braking system on the Kia Niro. Our TVC literally became … a brake.

The autonomous emergency brake assist system is an important feature to support Kia’s claim of technological excellence. The problem is that other automotive brands have already focused several campaigns on the feature of emergency braking. These past campaigns heavily relied on shock effect to communicate their message. We believe the problem with shocking messages is that people will always assume they will never need the emergency brake since they believe they are excellent drivers. To break through this avoidance barrier, we knew we couldn’t shock our target audience. Instead of choosing for shock, we chose to surprise. By communicating the emergency brake feature in a relevant and humorous way, we manage to live up to the Kia promise of the power to surprise. In this way, we use the brand promise as the product promise.

We systematically booked the last commercial during the break, just before the start of the program or film.

When you look at our commercial at normal speed it’s a Kia commercial in slow-motion about the Kia Niro. When you look at it in fast forward, it warns you when you have to stop. Just like the Kia autonomous emergency braking system on the Kia Niro.

- The insight of over-forwarding a television commercial and the smart solution was quickly picked-up by the internet which generated an extra 2.8 million online impressions and media coverage on important online platforms.

- The Commercial Brake became campaign of the week on Contagious.

- The campaign was voted in top 5 on Adforum