To help it stand out in an already-cluttered car category, Kia launched an aggressive campaign this week to promote its new compact car, the Forte. ‘It’s a battleground for launching cars in Canada,’ explains Mike Fielding, VP at Zenith Optimedia, who handled the campaign’s TV, newspaper, magazine and web banner buys, as well as web portal homepage takeovers.
The buys include three English and French TV spots running on CTV, Global and CityTV in English Canada, and TVA, RadioCanada and TQS in Quebec; print ads in national newspapers and trade publications, including World of Wheels, Automag and Le monde de l’auto. Web banners are also targeting car buffs on key automotive sites like Autonet.ca, Auto123.com and Caradisiac.com.
The campaign, which targets the 24-to-55 demo, also includes a one-day homepage takeover media strategy early next month, where all the advertising on Yahoo Yahoo.ca and Sympatico will drive consumers to the microsite. Five-second prime-time ‘dot spots’ airing on Canwest Global on Monday and through the next 13 weeks will also drive a general audience to the microsite, which features a Facebook Forte fanpage app.
