Rafael Nadal reduced Roger Federer to tears by seizing the Australian Open tennis championship on Feb. 1, but execs at the Seoul headquarters of Kia Motors couldn’t have been happier. Nadal, the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion, has had a sponsorship deal with the Korean automaker for 2-1/2 years, and his victory marked the culmination of Kia’s aggressive promotion of itself during the two-week tournament in Melbourne. Spectators in the Rod Laver Arena or watching on TV couldn’t escape the oblong Kia logo plastered all over the venue.
The Australian Open is one of several sports sponsorships for Korea’s second-largest automaker. “Sponsorship of sporting events will be an important part of our marketing blitz this year,” says Lee Soon Nam, director in charge of the South Korean company’s overseas marketing. At a time when many sporting events face problems as troubled banks and corporate sponsors cut back, Kia is splurging by spending scores of millions of dollars in sports marketing this year. Among sporting events Kia is sponsoring are the National Basketball Assn., the World Cup soccer tournament, and the Asian Games.
Meanwhile, Kia’s parent, Hyundai, has made sports bets of its own with some high-profile Super Bowl commercials. Two weeks before the Feb. 1 game between the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers, Hyundai bought three multimillion-dollar commercial spots on the Super Bowl’s pregame show. The ads are on top of the two it had already purchased to run during the games to push its brand, particularly linking its $32,000 Genesis sedans that won the North American Car of the Year Award last month. That stands in stark contrast with rivals such as General Motors (GM), which canceled its Super Bowl advertising as part of a campaign to cut costs.
As the likes of GM struggle to survive, execs at Kia, which is 39% owned by Hyundai, are upbeat about their chances for 2009. “The current economic crisis is a once-in-a-century opportunity for us to expand our presence,” Lee declares. “The focus this year will be gaining bigger market share.” Kia, which has market shares of 2.1% in the U.S., 1.7% in Europe, and 2.5% in China, as well as 27.3% in Korea, is a star performer on the Seoul bourse, with the stock jumping 21% so far this year, vs. a 2% gain for the benchmark Kospi index.