Hyundai is repositioning – all the way to its name, or rather the pronunciation of its name. Innocean UK and Hyundai are making fun of the anglicised version of the brand’s name, Hy-un-dai, as part of its mission to put the brand at the forefront of electric vehicles.

The Innocean campaign, New Dawn, is led by a humorous commercial in which people’s voice-to-search efforts take them to stranger soundalikes such as the hair salon, High ‘n’ Dye, a metal statue called Iron Guy and and food truck named High End Pie. It asks people to pronounce the brand’s name as it is in Korean, Hyun-day, but also to pay attention to the brand’s Ioniq EV range. The 40-second TVC was directed by Jeroen Mol at Familia, and will be supported across radio, online and on-demand media channels.

“Hyundai is a young, innovative and progressive brand which has transformed with great speed. We are proudly Korean with real character and purpose. 2023 is the perfect time for us to properly reflect this in the UK, with a wealth of exciting new product to be launched, including the incredible new Ioniq 6,” stated Ashley Andrew, Hyundai managing director of Hyundai Motor UK. “With this campaign, we want to inject a little humor and personality to our brand, which we hope will encourage more people to learn more about Hyundai.”

Dom Sweeney, head of creative at Innocean UK, added, “We so enjoyed making this campaign. It is a great opportunity to have a little fun with this amazing brand that is doing so much to change the way in which we can all enjoy the best in EV cars – using the pronunciation of Hyundai and the joy of talking to technology was a light-hearted way to bring that ‘new’ pronunciation to the UK as a way of noticing all the progression there is within this brand.”

Credits:

Client: Hyundai
Agency: Innocean Worldwide UK

Production Company: FAMILIA
Director: Jeroen Mol
Producer: Kwok Yau
Executive Producer: Ciaran Bennett