Autoblog

Last year, many people got their first glimpse of Hyundai's new Genesis luxury sedan as the Giants beat the stuffing out of the Patriots during Superbowl XLII. Pleased with the results of that effort, Hyundai is coming back to the big game, this time with the Genesis Coupe. Outgoing creative agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners is handling two 30-second commercials featuring Hyundai's sporty new rear-drive two door. While the agency change has raised some eyebrows, Hyundai insists that it will continue to work with Goodby for quite some time, even as it transitions creative duties to World Marketing Group, already handling media buys for the automaker. We'll have to tune in for all four quarters to see if the jilted ad folks mailed it in, but judging from the quality of Goodby's work on the Genesis Sedan - and the target-meeting 8,000 units sold - the pigskin-centric effort will likely meet with success.

[Source: Brandweek]

The economy appears to be swooning, and before we land softly (or crash hard), company's have begun to circle their wagons and reduce unnecessary spending. This often translates directly into reducing advertising budgets. It's tough for an automaker to skimp on engineering and we've all seen what happens when beancounters design an interior. Advertising, however, is low-hanging budgetary fruit. Hyundai's concern over the U.S. economy is a motivating factor in the automaker's move to reconsider its pricey Super Bowl advertising.

Hyundai announced in October that it would be burning $5.4 million dollars for a mere minute of TV air time, committing to two spots during the February 3rd broadcast. Now, Hyundai's Chris Hosford tells Automotive News that they're looking at the strategy and asking themselves if that's the best use of their ad budget for the first quarter. Superbowl spots are usually expensive to produce, too, as the commercials stand a chance of garnering more banter on February 4th than the actual game does if they're interesting. Hugely expensive airtime and humongous charges from their agency all for just a minute of TV? Yeah, we'd be taking a second look, too.

That brings the total number of automakers advertising during the Super Bowl down to three: Chevy, Audi and Toyota. Oh yeah, we'll be watching.

[Source: AutoNews - sub req]