In 2018, Hyundai launched the KONA, a flagship SUV that is integral to their positioning as a major player within the automotive industry.

To debut the all-new Kona, Hyundai, BuzzFeed and iHeartMedia joined forces to create Kamp Kona — a three-stop music & arts extravaganza in America's great Southwest region — along with reams of custom content certain to drive attention from culture-obsessed millennials.

The campaign’s objectives included: 1) building awareness for the Kona launch, 2) generating a positive association of the SUV, 3) showing off the vehicle’s functionality for an adventurous lifestyle, and 4) creating substantial views of custom content with truly meaningful engagement among Hyundai’s key audience.

So what happened next? Get ready for a wild ride!

To build awareness for the Kona among young consumers, Hyundai tapped BuzzFeed to create an integrated campaign rooted in custom content, scale and experience. And so Kamp Kona (aka The Wild West of Creativity) sprang to life.

Kamp Kona soon became a three-stop music and arts tour in America's top destinations for creatives — Marfa, Texas; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Echo Park, California — all must-see locations for millennials.

Like Hyundai’s Kona, the artists featured at each locale were focused on one thing: pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Each of these venues offered a unique journey for young culture-obsessed millennials to explore and share online.

This series of immersive experiences also generated reams of custom content, perfectly positioning the campaign to strategically reach key audiences through multiple, disparate elements (online and in real life) — while positioning the Kona as the ideal small SUV for a giant adventure.

Hyundai studied endless research, behavioral characteristics and market identifiers to understand Kona's target audience. Conducted in partnership with researchnow, the data informed BuzzFeed’s custom campaign centered around a one-of-a-kind, shareable music experience across three “you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it” venues.

Kona’s target audience was identified as young explorers looking to share their experiences with the world. According to the data, they are adventurous (hello, open road), cite music as crucial (VIP concert pass anyone?), and are eager to try new things (especially before their friends!). Even more so, this audience posts to Facebook and Instagram several times a day. Their social networks are an information source as well as a platform to share each step of their unforgettable adventures.

Since experiencing new music, art, food and culture is a daily habit for the Kona’s key audience, we decided to roll them all into one, creating an undeniable new world to attract these vibrant consumers.

Entertainment and credibility were Kamp Kona's primary criteria. It was crucial to create a truly immersive experience for young consumers that would jolt them out of their emotionless digital world.

Headlined by buzzy electronic artist Dan Deacon, each show celebrated art-and-music culture, interactive live shows and surprise special guests. Far from the standard Top 10 major markets, we sought creative communities with venues that had as many stories to tell as the artists themselves:

• June 9, 2018: Meow Wolf (Santa Fe, NM)

• June 16, 2018: The Echoplex (Echo Park, CA)

• June 23, 2018: Convenience West (Marfa, TX)

Documenting Kamp Kona was a custom content series showcasing local flair and artistic integrity while organically highlighting the all-new Kona. To do this, Hyundai partnered with the best social content creator (BuzzFeed) and iHeartMedia for music credibility. This custom-built, first-to-market music and arts festival ultimately drove engagement through the roof.

Kamp Kona was successful across both the experiential component and custom content, all of which drove brand recognition and favorability for the Kona among key audiences.

On the event side, the 3-stop festival attracted more than 1,250 music and arts lovers with massive social media followings. This empowered the custom content centered around Kamp Kona to amass a huge reach: more than 63+ million video views, 275 million impressions, and 4.1+ million total engagements.

Taken together, the various components of Kamp Kona successfully raised brand awareness: from 37.6% before the campaign to 58.3%. Beyond brand recognition, the campaign’s creative content significantly altered viewers’ perception of Hyundai: 28.3% gained a positive impression of Hyundai and 46.5% reported viewing Hyundai as a passionate brand.