Take a guess at who was Ad Age's marketer of the year in 2009 and I bet the first thing that comes to your mind are sexy brands like Coke, Pepsi, Nike, Budweiser, etc. How shocked would you be to hear that it was Hyundai with their Assurance Program they rolled out in 2009? You know the one with Jeff Bridges (now Academy Award Winning Jeff Bridges) doing the voice over telling you that if you buy a new Hyundai and lose your income in the year after purchasing it you can return it FREE OF CHARGE.

Hyundai's market share jumped to 4.3% in the first ten months of 2009 from 3.1% in the same year-ago period. In September, while the industry overall suffered a 22% sales drop in a post-Cash for Clunkers hangover, Hyundai managed to increase its new-vehicle tally by 27% to 31,511 units.

"This is a recession of fear," Joel Ewanick, Hyundai's VP-marketing told Advertising Age back in February. "We realized that the elephant in the room was the fear of losing your job. I feel the same way. We all do. The idea of giving people the option to give the car back if they were struggling . . . seemed a great way to make customers comfortable and increase our market share in an economy like this."

Ahhh...the old trick of taping into human emotion overcomes again! Seems like sometimes all consumers are looking for is a little bit of assurance and someone to trust in and unsure time. Hyundai sure has raised the bar and maybe it's time others followed in this unfortunate situation we're all in.

Labels: Advertising, auto, Hyundai Assurance

Image by MSVG via FlickrNow THIS is creative marketing we can all learn from! Hyandai, the auto maker that purports to have come up with America's most creative warranty a decade ago, which still may be the industry's best at 100,000 miles or ten years, has now upped their game for the current economy offering the following:

A decade ago Hyundai pioneered America's best warranty to show you the faith we have in our cars, Today, in addition to our warranty we're introducing Hyundai Assurance, to show you the faith we have in you. Right now, buy or lease a new Hyundai, and if in the next year you lose your income* we'll let you return it. That's the Hyundai Assurance.

*And the fine print is even great. Ironicallly, it's not a bunch of legal-ease and states:

Involuntary unemployment
Physical disability
Loss of driver's license due to physical imparment
International employment transfer
Self employed personal bankruptcy
Accidental death

I am sure the legal ramifications are there when you sign up, but to keep them away from the markting is smart and bold. In total there are several great lessons to think about here as marketers. Of course the first is to be creative with the offer. This sells itself. Secondly, I love the tone and the way it makes me as the consumer feel. I have not seen any ads, just the web site, but it is clean and simple. And, as they state, It DOES give me confidence. As we all know consumer confidence is the key to selling right now. Third, the wording is so crisp and straight forward that committees and legal meetings must have been managed well so the copy could SELL. Congratulations to the Hyundai marketing team. Nicely done.

This is the best I have seen in the first few weeks in 2009. You?

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Labels: creativity, Hyundai Assurance, Marketing, Warranty