Kia pulls at the robot heartstrings in EV6 Super Bowl ad

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Kia pulls at the robot heartstrings in EV6 Super Bowl ad

Published: 06 Feb. 2022, 16:12

A scene from Kia America's advert for the EV6 electric vehicle (EV) shows Robo Dog hanging out of the car's window. The advert will be broadcasted at the Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on Feb. 13. [KIA]

Kia will promote its EV6 electric vehicle at the Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on Feb. 13.

Kia has been advertising at the Super Bowl since 2010, but this year marks the first time the carmaker has used the platform to promote an electric vehicle.

Ahead of the game Kia America uploaded a video of the ad on YouTube on Feb. 4. The 60-second clip shows a lonely robotic dog — aptly named Robo Dog — chasing an EV6 through a city in a desperate bid to find a friend. With Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" blaring in the background, Robo Dog finally catches up with the car, only to run out of battery as he dives off a roof to meet it.

The ad then cuts to the driver recharging the dog using the EV6’s vehicle to load (V2L) function that allows the car to provide electricity to other devices without additional equipment. The final shot then shows Robo Dog happily hanging out of the EV6's window as Kia's slogan "Live fully charged" appears on the screen.

The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL) and one of the biggest sports events in the world. With more than 100 million viewers in the U.S. alone, the Super Bowl has also grown into one of the biggest advertising events in the world, with major companies like Amazon, Google and Coca Cola pouring millions of dollars into the event. A total of 60 advertising slots are available throughout the game.

A 30-second advertisement spot cost $6.5 million last year and some ads reached a record $7 million price for 30 seconds this year, according to NBC. All spots have been sold for the game and only a few remain for the pregame programming, the broadcaster said.

A picture of Kia's EV6 electric vehicle (EV) model with Robo Dog [KIA]

Despite the cost, companies are eager to win the 30-second chance to expose their brand to hundreds of millions of viewers and become the talk of the town for weeks to follow.

Hyundai Motor has been advertising every year at the Super Bowl since 2008 and Kia since 2010. The two companies skipped a year in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hyundai Motor will sit this year out as it has no new models to promote.

“It’s most effective to advertise at the Super Bowl in tandem with the release of a new model, but Hyundai Motor had already spent its advertising budget for the Ioniq 5 last year,” an official at Hyundai Motor Group said.

“Kia, on the other hand, just released the EV6 model last month and stated sales.”

Before this year, Kia and Hyundai Motors had both advertised internal combustion (IC) engine vehicles.

Both automakers have been seeing significant growth of EV sales in the U.S. market recently. The two companies sold 19,800 EVs in the United States last year, a 168 percent increase from 2020, when they sold 7,400 electric cars.

“To introduce over 100 million viewers to the Kia EV6, we wanted to juxtapose the future with the emotions we all know and understand today — the love that can be shared between a human and an animal,” said Russell Wager, vice president of Kia America marketing, in a statement.

After the game ends, all adverts are put through an online popularity vote every year by USA Today, dubbed the "Super Bowl AD Meter"

Kia ranked No. 8 for its Seltos advert in 2020, while Hyundai Motor’s Sonata Smart Park was voted No. 2 out of all 62 adverts. Hyundai Motor was named No. 1 in 2016 for its Genesis promotion.

BY BAEK MIN-JEONG, YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]