Comment by Michael B. Moore on August 31, 2010 at 6:49am

In the perpetual quest to create fantastic advertising that builds brands and sells product, sometimes a 'Great Big Creative Idea' can actually not be a good thing. The 2010 Kia Soul Hamster tv spot is such an example. IMO the piece is superlatively done: extraordinarily creative, extremely well executed with brilliant music and an arresting over-all impact. It's a great piece of work. Its just not great advertising because the special effects with the hamsters dramatically overpower the brand and the product.

The star of the ad should be the Kia Soul, but its the hamsters - and maybe even secondarily - the accompanying soundtrack! The presentation of the cute animals is so creative, so compelling, so deftly animated, and so cool - that the viewer can't help but be drawn to them. And while, I think, the point of the ad is to present the hamsters as being so cool that they drive a Kia Soul (and since you're cool, you too should want to drive a Kia Soul), IMO the vehicles and the brand get short shrift in the overall takeaway of the ad.

We're used to seeing cool cars with all sorts of whiz-bang features. It's quite novel for us to see animated urban hamsters (rats???) dancing, rapping, and generally holding sway over the streets, the basketball courts, the barber shop etc. The impact of the extraordinarily novel presentation of the hamsters makes them what we remember - significantly above the vehicle and the brand. In fact, in the final analysis, I see this as less a Kia Soul ad and more of a trailer for a potential new movie or tv series - which would be fantastic!!

How could the agency have managed this delicate balance better? If the ad showed the hamsters interacting more with the vehicles - and its cool features - that could do it. Again, the vehicles and the brand should have been the main focal point of the ad. Since we are totally sold the notion that the hamsters are cooooool, perhaps more visuals of the hamsters being impressed with, and enjoying, the Kia Soul could have shifted the balance back in the right place. After hooking us to them, why not leverage our natural intrigue with the hamsters to have them showcase features of the Kias that we should know about?

Again, great work; just not great advertising! There's an extremely important distinction here that often gets lost in the increasingly competitive search for that next big creative idea. Advertising is about building brands and selling product. Period. At the end of the day, Kia's agency underperformed on this challenge. They presented their client's brand and vehicle as secondary props! The ad was really more about their 'big idea', the uber cool hamsters, than their client's brand. Great for the agency - as it will probably win lots of awards for its spot. Too bad for Kia - as, I'm guessing, most who "consume" this ad are moved more by its entertainment value then by persuasive brand building communications about the Kia Soul. That's not the recipe for great advertising, despite the big idea!

Comment by DavidCrace on September 20, 2010 at 9:38pm

Agree with your conclusions.

Comment by Gunnar Branson on January 26, 2011 at 11:29pm

Nothing more could be added to your assessment.  Too bad for Kia that they haven't learned to consult you first.

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