Hyundai Canada and its digital media agency, Toronto-based Mighty, have made the most of the unbelievable footage of a Hyundai Elantra being crushed by an SUV last week with a free car giveaway and YouTube video response.

The security camera footage of an SUV jumping a cement parking stop in a Thornhill, ON gym parking lot – crushing the windshields of the two cars opposite – went viral on YouTube on Wednesday last week, and was at well over a million views as of Friday.

Mighty, the new media division of Bensimon Byrne, had been on the lookout for just such a thing for their clients, one of which is Hyundai. As soon as it was realized one of the cars damaged was a Hyundai, the idea was hatched to respond to it in kind, Mighty CD Jon Toews told MiC. The agency pitched Hyundai on replacing the victim’s car with a new one and creating a ‘response’ video to upload to YouTube. Hyundai agreed, and the free car gift was arranged for the morning of Oct. 30, two days after the video broke.

‘We couldn’t wait till January to do this, this has to happen right away,’ said Toews. ‘It’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen a client do. It’s not just a good PR opportunity; I think this is a really good example of the ultimate social media opportunity: responding to a meme right away.’

Mighty posted an edit of the original video and the free-car presentation to YouTube Friday evening, and plans to follow through with a simple, social media-exclusive promotion through Twitter and Hyundai’s Facebook fan page.

Barb Pitblado, manager, public relations, Hyundai Canada, told MiC that the company was delighted when Mighty presented them with the idea.

‘I think it positions Hyundai as nimble, in terms of being able to react quickly like this,’ she said. ‘But it also demonstrates [that] our brand is willing to do  random acts of kindness and [is a] little bit unique,’ she says.

Originally posted Friday, Oct. 30. Updated Monday, Nov. 2.