The small town of West Point, Georgia is where Kia’s new SUV, the Telluride, is being built. Ravaged by the collapse of the textile industry, it fell into dark times but came out the other side. To get our story, we embedded ourselves in the local community and met the people who made the town what it is today. The film was not designed to be an overt piece of automotive marketing, instead, it would complement the wider Telluride launch campaign by honoring the people of West Point who build the car. Our goal was to recognize the unrecognized and give them a platform and tie this to Kia’s new brand promise, ‘Give It Everything’ – a rallying cry that celebrates dedication and hard work.

Resurrection.

The story of a people and a town that rose from the ashes of a collapsed textile industry, relying only on its courage to see it through to the other side, before finally finding new life when Kia opened its new plant there. This documentary features key interviews with a selection of people from West Point and the local area: the pastor, the mayor, its oldest living resident, factory workers, as well as a local fisherman. We then recruited a local blues guitar player to provide a musical thread to our story.

The overall campaign strategy centered around two components: to launch the new Telluride SUV and to simultaneously introduce Kia’s new brand promise: Give It Everything. This new tagline highlights Kia’s unstoppable spirit to try harder, work smarter, build better, and sweat every detail while recognizing that our consumers share this same drive. It was also designed to sharpen Kia’s challenger brand status amongst a wider audience, improve brand opinion, and honor the integrity of hard-working Americans, including our very own Kia employees at the West Point plant and across the US. This film would act as a deep dive into the backstory of West Point where the Telluride is built and show how the spirit of the people who live and work in the town impacts on the making of the car itself.

Conceived as a side project to accompany the main Super Bowl film, we were tasked with constructing a documentary series to delve deeper into the story of the town of West Point, Georgia. We embedded ourselves in the local community and operated as a splinter unit capturing footage and interviews. Shot on a tight budget with 4 crew: co-directors/interviewer, camera op, and producer. We had one week’s prep time and moved quickly and nimbly. We soon became regular features in the town and at the various locations. The film(s) went live on Super Bowl Sunday as the main 90-second spot premiered during the game.

There was no digital media spend behind the film and all views were gained organically, meaning over 30,000 people watched a video that lasted nearly 5 minutes. As part of the wider launch campaign it can be credited for:

13,565% increase in consideration for Telluride / 866% increase in visits to auto site Edmunds’ Kia Telluride page / 7 x lift in search queries / 121% increase in Google searches for Kia / 305% increase in brand consideration on Edmunds’