Youth homelessness in the US has reached unprecedented proportions. While other Western nations have youth homeless problems, their numbers are a fraction of those in America where an estimated 4.2 million children experience homelessness every year. How could the wealthiest nation on Earth have so many homeless youth?

The brief was to simultaneously launch a new SUV at the Super Bowl and to use this platform to draw attention to the homeless youth cause. We wanted to directly connect the Super Bowl itself with the homeless problem, so we partnered with American Football player Josh Jacobs who grew up sleeping in cars, and later went on to become Rookie of the Year. The SUV’s tagline “Tough Never Quits” connected with the tenacious spirit of Josh Jacobs, a shining symbol for homeless children. Lastly, the objective was to raise money for our homeless charity initiative.

Social and economic inequity continues to be the single greatest challenge facing the United States. Minority groups continue to suffer, and a disproportionately large number of Blacks and Latino/Latinas fall into the demographic living below the poverty line. And more recently due to COVID-19 the disparities have grown even larger. But, hidden amongst all this is an invisible crisis: millions of homeless children.

The sad truth of this campaign is the sheer scale of children (under 18) who are experiencing homelessness every year. A recent report by the University of Chicago put the number at an astonishing 4.2M every year. Even accounting for the difference in population, the numbers of

homeless children in European nations are a fraction of this. We worked with three homeless charities: Covenant House, Stand Up for Kids, and Positive Tomorrows and helped them out where it matters: on the streets.

We hijacked our own Super Bowl SUV launch to help the millions of children who experience homelessness every year in America.

We partnered with American Football player Josh Jacobs who himself grew up homeless, raised on the streets by his father. He starred in our campaign and brought attention to this cause.

But, bringing awareness wasn’t enough. We launched “Yards Against Homelessness” which went live as the game kicked off, and with every yard run we donated $1,000, along with thousands more from the viewing public. Eventually, along with public donations, the total raised would top $2M.

There are over 270 different SUVs marketed in North America. And the differences between them are often subtle. The launch of a new SUV contender from Kia needed to cement its credibility as a capable vehicle, and one that stood for something. Our ‘Tough Never Quits’ strategic platform emerged from this, and this trait became the campaign architecture and informed everything, and was coupled with a purpose-driven component which sought to address the huge youth homeless crisis spreading across the US.

We wanted to tie together the strands of the SUV launch, the Super Bowl, and the homeless cause we had chosen. Josh Jacobs, American Football player and Rookie of the Year grew up homeless and became the focal point for the campaign as he drew these elements together in an inspirational way that appealed to our millennial drivers.

Our multifaceted campaign needed to simultaneously: highlight a major societal issue, raise millions for that cause, while still selling an new SUV – across TV, online video, social media, outdoor, and print.

A teaser the week before Super Bowl revealed the young co-star of the big game spot: Josh’s ‘younger self’–who grew up homeless. Then, on 1/29, the Super Bowl spot previewed online,

along with a Twitter “conversation” between Josh and his younger self. The documentary also premiered, going deeper into Josh’s backstory.

The spot then aired during Q3 of the game, ending with a CTA calling for donations to Kia’s ‘Yards Against Homelessness’ initiative: for every yard run during the game $1,000 was donated to homeless charities (totalling $2M a month later). Prestigious full-page print ads followed in USA Today on the Monday and Tuesday after the game, calling out the homeless initiative; along with nationwide OOH.

1. The campaign achieved widespread acclaim: with the Super Bowl film crashing the TOP 10 in USA TODAY’s Ad Meter of the best spots of the Super Bowl. It was named one of the best spots of the Super Bowl by NBC’s The Today Show.

2. Social Sentiment leapt by 72%, and PR Reach topped 512M.

3. Sales: Our new SUV ended up the 2nd-highest-selling new vehicle in 2020 (behind only Tesla Model Y).

4. Through our ‘Yards Against Homelessness’ initiative we provided over 300,000 nights of housing, over 1,000,000 meals for homeless children.