Innocean summons the power of crowd-sourcing for Hyundai i10

Hyundai i10 is a venerable part of Hyundai Motor India’s portfolio. The brand has been a leading seller in the premium compact segment . Communication has been amplified using Shahrukh Khan as the brand ambassador since its launch.

With growing competitiveness and a need to refresh the communication for Hyundai i10 Hyundai mandated its agency Innocean Worldwide India to conceptualise a new campaign for the brand in line with its dominant presence in the compact segment. The Hyundai i10 has steadfastly stayed true to its positioning as an attitudinally driven brand in the category of compacts targeting a demographic cohort of 25-35 years. The brand’s user base finds its comfort, performance and mileage an irresistible turn on.

For 2013 the team at Innocean thought about energising the entire targeted base with a bait to get them thinking about the car. Not only was the intent about creating an energy field around the brand Hyundai i10 but also to make the entire universe of prospective car buyers a part of the communication engagement. The agency has devised the a crowd sourcing campaign using Shahrukh Khan. Herein all prospective buyers of i10 and its existing owners get to write a script for the next i10 TVC. If selected the contestant gets to act with Shahrukh Khan in the TVC  for i10. According to Saurabh Dasgupta ECD at Innocean Worldwide India : “ the challenge for us lay in the defining the contours of this campaign to elicit a high level of response and stay true to the brand values of Hyundai i10. Yet at the heart of it all the communication intent is simple : imbibe the brand’s virtues, craft a script and full your acting dreams with SRK!”

The phase I TVC for the campaign has an agitated SRK asking the fumbling director for his lines and then turning to the audience asking them to write in with their scripts. This campaign utilises the digital platform extensively to close the participation loop. In the words of B Sridhar Group Director – Media & Digital Services at Innocean , “ the campaign has given us a rather good sized canvas to draw a digitally integrated communication effort that’s all pervasive.” A micro-site enables all participants to upload their scripts as text, video or even audio files. There is the regular snail mail too. A single response number with ‘missed call’ facility enables an IVR driven interaction wherein the scripts can be recorded by the contestants.

“it’s a rather exciting idea we have thought of and it’s a composite one which looks at all aspects of communication and engagement touchpoints,” says Vivek Srivastava Jt. MD of Innocean. “ The integration of diverse media apertures is one of the strengths of this endeavour and showcases our team’s technological capabilities alongside the dexterity with the advertising craft,” he added further.

The campaign in this phase will run for 6 weeks seeking the consumers’ participation and thereafter return with the crowd-sourced idea in its full glory featuring the Hyundai i10, SRK and the winner.