How Hyundai is leveraging a TikTok trend to connect with Black consumers

As part of its ongoing efforts to connect with Black consumers, Hyundai Motor America today launched a choose-your-own-adventure style campaign highlighting the love between a real-life couple.

Hyundai’s “Choose Yours” campaign revolves around two 60-second spots starring actors Alonzo B. Slater and Mea Wilkerson. Each of the two commercials plays off of the “pick a card” TikTok trend, in which one person will present multiple pieces of paper or cards labeled with different activities or destinations for another person to blindly choose between. 

This video format has become especially popular with couples as a way to help them plan out date activities, as Slater and Wilkerson do in the two Hyundai spots. Both commercials begin with Slater inviting Wilkerson to choose between two of Hyundai’s electric vehicle models to ride in, without her knowing which one she'll pick. Then, the stories diverge, as Wilkerson selects different date activities for the couple to enjoy depending on which commercial the audience is viewing. The couple starts their date by visiting an art gallery in one spot, while they instead go shopping in the other.

On YouTube and TikTok, two of the channels that the spots will run on, consumers will get to participate in the “pick a card” trend, too, by selecting which of the two dates they’d prefer to go on. When Slater lifts the two cards labeled “IONIQ 5” and “IONIQ 6” in the commercial, viewers can choose between the two electric vehicle models by tapping or clicking on one of the cards, said Erik Thomas, Hyundai’s director of experiential marketing. Award-winning director Rohan Blair-Mangat was tapped to direct both spots. 

The “Choose Yours” campaign is a continuation of the automaker’s “Okay Hyundai” brand platform, which Hyundai developed in partnership with Culture Brands, its African American marketing agency of record, in 2021. Each commercial in this ongoing marketing push features someone approvingly saying the titular phrase, “Okay, Hyundai,” as, “in the African American community, placing ‘Okay’ before something is the quintessential way things worth noticing are acknowledged,” Eunique Jones Gibson, CEO and chief creative officer of Culture Brands, said when the campaign launched.

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“It's imperative that we reflect a mirror back to our audience that lets them know that we see them,” Jones Gibsons said in a statement discussing the latest push.

This catchphrase is just one example of cultural references and nuances incorporated into Hyundai’s creative messaging, crafted in partnership with Culture Brands, to resonate with Black consumers. The majority of the automaker's commercials aimed at Black buyers have showcased various types of relationships and connections “important to the African American community,” such as those between father and daughter or uncle and nephew, Thomas said. The “Choose Yours” campaign continues this trend by “showcasing Black love,” he added. 

“Ultimately, we know that it's important to make the investment to make a direct connection with the [Black] community by using insights that are a reflection of them,” he said. “We really want to be truly inspirational, because, truth be told, when we are, we’re receiving the dividends. That interest and recognition, the brand opinion—it all goes up, and we move from being sort of this distant brand that people don't know to an aspirational brand and something that people identify with.”

Hyundai’s “Choose Yours” campaign also spotlights artwork from artist Troy Scat in the version of events where Slater and Wilkerson visit an art gallery. With Easter eggs such as this one, the automaker seeks to “further connect with the community and celebrate unique facets in [Black] culture,” Thomas said.

Beyond the ads appearing on social media, both commercials will air on linear TV and other digital channels, he said. Additionally, in the coming weeks, Hyundai will team up with several of its brand ambassadors to participate in the “pick a card” challenge and share their experiences on social media. 

Earlier this week, the automaker also launched a multicultural marketing campaign around its Ioniq 6 electric vehicle model, aimed at Hispanic buyers. The Spanish-language video spot at the center of the campaign, titled “Viejos Cuentos (Cautionary Tales),” challenges several myths and misconceptions about electric vehicles, such as them being autonomous or taking long periods of time to charge. Hyundai partnered with Lopez Negrete Communications, a U.S. Hispanic marketing agency, on that campaign.