March 9th, 2023, Kineree Shah
Love it or hate it, Hyundai’s 2023 campaign to get the British public to correctly pronounce its name has struck a chord with consumers in a way that other brands may look upon enviously.
The campaign hoisted the brand to the top of our ranking of the most talked-about brands in January. According to YouGov BrandIndex data, which tracks brand perception among consumers on a daily basis, Hyundai saw the highest increase in Word of Mouth (WOM) exposure during January – of all the brands we track in the UK.
WOM asks consumers if they have talked about the brand with family or friends in the prior two weeks and our data shows that more people are talking about Hyundai right now than at any time since we’ve been tracking the brand, covering a period of almost ten years.
But as the chart below shows, the increase sparked by this recent campaign doesn’t represent an incremental step in chatter around the brand – it's a quantum leap.
Hyundai’s campaign has been widely promoted across multiple channels – and the visibility of any ad has an impact on whether a brand is being talked about. In the case of "The Dawn of a New Hyundai", ads for the brand have been highly visible. As the chart below shows, Hyundai’s Ad Awareness score has roughly tripled since the campaign debuted on Boxing Day 2022.
And while some ad campaigns can be divisive (and a few consumers have complained about being told to change their pronunciation), that’s not the case for this push. Hyundai’s Buzz score, which monitors whether consumers have heard anything positive or negative about a brand, more than doubled from 3.1 on January 1 to 7.0 on January 28, denoting an overwhelmingly positive reaction from consumers.
Which consumers have taken most note of Hyundai’s campaign?
So in brand-building terms, the campaign looks to have been successful. But who has taken most notice – and will Hyundai’s marketing team be pleased with the results?
An analysis of our Word of Mouth metric by income suggests they probably will. And that’s because it’s amongst the highest earning consumers (those with an income of £50,000 or more) that the metric has experienced the biggest bump (see the chart below). That could suggest, amongst other things, that the ads have been placed particularly well or that the campaign's message lands strongly with this audience.
Older people have also been disproportionately impacted by the campaign – at least as far as Word of Mouth exposure goes. Those aged 50 or over are significantly more likely to be talking about the brand, something which could also be related to Hyundai’s recent inter-generational campaign for its IONIQ 5 model. But it is worth noting that data from our Profiles tool tells us that this group is the least likely to be in the market for a car purchase this year.
Nevertheless, overall this data is likely to make happy reading for the brand’s marketers. But what effect is it having further down the purchase funnel? Well, the good news is that among the general public, Consideration for the brand has reached its highest level since we started tracking it back in 2013. In January 2023, the score averaged 16.6 and that compares to a score of 14.1 for the previous January. Better still, among those who are in the market to buy a car in the next 12 months, Consideration for Hyundai is also at its peak.
All this means that, however you pronounce it, there’s no doubt that Hyundai is a brand on the lips of consumers right now.
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Methodology
YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. A brand’s Word of Mouth score is based on the question: “Which of the following brands have you talked about with friends and family in the past two weeks (whether in person, online, or through social media)?” Data from surveys of adults aged 18 years and above residing in the UK from January 1 to 31 2023. Word of Mouth scores are based on a four-week moving average. The change in scores for each brand is calculated by taking the difference between the highest and lowest scoring days within the period. Learn more about BrandIndex.
Photo by Hyundai Motor Group from Pexels