A controversial Hyundai advertising campaign which gives customers a ‘ticking-off’ over their mispronunciation of the Korean carmaker’s name has accelerated its brand awareness ahead of key rivals.
Research data from YouGov shows that the campaign, through which Hyundai attempts to change consumer’s anglicised pronunciation of 'Hy-un-dai' to the global pronunciation 'Hyun-day' ramped-up brand perception during January.
YouGov said that Hyundai registered the most significant increase in Ad Awareness for January 2023 of all the auto brands it tracks in the UK, making it the Auto Advertiser of the Month.
A controversial Hyundai advertising campaign which gives customers a ‘ticking-off’ over their mispronunciation of the Korean carmaker’s name has accelerated its brand awareness ahead of key rivals.
Research data from YouGov shows that the campaign, through which Hyundai attempts to change consumer’s anglicised pronunciation of 'Hy-un-dai' to the global pronunciation 'Hyun-day' ramped-up brand perception during January.
YouGov said that Hyundai registered the most significant increase in Ad Awareness for January 2023 of all the auto brands it tracks in the UK, making it the Auto Advertiser of the Month.
“According to data from YouGov BrandIndex, which tracks perceptions toward brands daily, the South Korean automotive brand saw an improvement of 13.3 percentage points, going from 5.4 on December 25, 2022, to 18.7 on January 24, 2023”, it said.
Hyundai’s “The Dawn of the New Hyundai” campaign in the UK features a tagline - "If you thought you knew our cars and how to say our name, maybe it's time to think again".
But its efforts to change the pronunciation of its name has proved divisive.
One online poll of consumers hosted by Twitter user Gav Richards (@gav) found that 76.5% of respondents would not change the way they said Hyundai in light of the televised ads.
Another took to Twitter to highlight a Hyundai i30 N hot hatch TV ad from as recently as four years ago in which the brand referred to itself as ‘Hy-un-dai’.
In his Twitter comments Richards said: “They're literally telling everyone they've been saying it wrong all this time. Unlike e.g. Ikea, who pronounce it differently to the general pop in their ads, but don't make a big thing of it.”
Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) data showed that Hyundai's new car registrations rose by 10.9% year-on-year to 6,237 in January as the wider market grew by 14.7%.
The result came on the back of 15.4% growth to 80,419 registrations in 2022 as a whole as the market dipped 2%.
The brand is getting 2023 off to a strong start with the launch of its second Ioniq electric vehicle (EV) model, the Ioniq 6, and a new Kona crossover.
Watch Hyundai's "Dawn of a New Era" advert here:
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