How Kia Was A part of the Recreation With out Being within the Recreation
Kia had a realization: as an alternative of spending $7 million on a 30-second Tremendous Bowl advert—the place viewership and interplay had been unsure—they may interact over 540,000 shoppers on social media for a fraction of the fee.
The 2025 Kia Squares sweepstakes, created in collaboration with their company David & Goliath, was a free contest that ran for 5 days main as much as Tremendous Bowl LIX on February 9, 2025. Borrowing from the standard squares sport typically performed at Tremendous Bowl gatherings, individuals chosen squares on a ten x 10 grid obtainable on Kia’s mobile-friendly web site. Every grid sq. was assigned a quantity that matched the final digit of every staff’s rating on the finish of every quarter. The cut-off to enter was set for 45 minutes previous to kickoff.
All 4 winners entered a drawing to obtain one among 4 Kia autos. Kia promoted the sport via Instagram and TikTok, with particular person sellers additionally reaching out to their buyer lists.
To realize insights into the success of this technique, Clear Fleet Report spoke with Kia’s Director of Advertising and marketing Operations & Model Technique, Megan Gillam, and Director of Model Expertise, Brad Mays.
Clear Fleet Report: How does Kia measure the return on funding (ROI) for a social media promotion like Kia Squares?
Kia: We measure it via three key indicators. First, we monitor impressions. Combining each paid and natural media efforts, we achieved over 100 million impressions throughout varied channels. Second, we monitor clicks through the distinctive URL for KiaSquares.com, which noticed 565,556 guests, leading to 241,838 registrations for the sweepstakes.
CFR: What occurred after these guests reached the web site?
Kia: Those that opted in might be taught extra about Kia. We added their data to our database and positioned them in a CRM (Buyer Relationship Administration) system. At this stage, we primarily requested for his or her title, e mail tackle, and cellphone quantity, avoiding detailed demographic questions.
CFR: Because you didn’t initially ask for geographical places, how did you join these people with native sellers?
Kia: The individuals had been entered into our hand-raiser curriculum, the place they may select to obtain extra data and have a seller contact them.
CFR: Had been there incentives to inspire them in direction of buying a car?
Kia: We usually don’t use non-public presents or buy incentives. The preliminary communication accommodates product data, and individuals are among the many first to learn about new launches and gross sales occasions.
CFR: Given Kia’s involvement in sports activities and leisure sponsorships, reminiscent of with the NBA and varied venues, would possibly these individuals be invited to occasions?
Kia: The Kia Squares promotion was simple; individuals opted in to probably win one among 4 automobiles. Prize achievement is dealt with via native sellers quite than on the producer degree.
CFR: What had been the primary takeaways from the Kia Squares marketing campaign?
Kia: This marketing campaign exceeded our expectations. A considerable 74 million impressions got here from TikTok, indicating a youthful viewers, which aligns with Kia’s buyer base. We additionally sponsored the USA In the present day Advert Meter, permitting our promotion to be included within the adverts previewed previous to the Tremendous Bowl. We acquired an 88% optimistic sentiment score from those that considered it.
CFR: Are you able to disclose the prices concerned for Kia Squares?
Kia: The whole expense for the prize autos and the promotion was a small fraction of what we’d have spent on Tremendous Bowl promoting. Whereas I can’t share actual numbers, our ROI was important: over 100 million impressions, 241,838 entrants, and almost 250,000 people signed up as hand-raisers. This allowed us to have interaction with the sport with out immediately shopping for advert area.
CFR: Will Kia pursue comparable promotions sooner or later?
Kia: Whereas this was a novel alternative to affix in on Tremendous Bowl buzz, we don’t plan to make it an everyday apply. Nonetheless, the success from the February 4-9 contest entry window proved efficient for producing pleasure at a minimal value, making it a worthwhile experiment.
CFR: One other important annual promotion for Kia is the sponsorship of the New 12 months’s Eve ball drop in Instances Sq.. How do you measure its influence?
Kia: We take a look at impressions across the time of the ball drop. We monitor site visitors to our web site and social channels, which reveals tangible engagement from viewers. Inside 24 hours of the occasion, we see a notable spike in Kia.com site visitors correlating with the Instances Sq. broadcast.
As a notice, the Kia prize autos included the 2025 EV9, Sportage, Carnival, and K5, with winners from completely different cities throughout the U.S.
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Story by John Faulkner. Images and graphics by Kia.
