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You’re probably already familiar with the Kia Hamsters. The computer generated driving animals have appeared in a number of Kia ads in recent years. And the latest in that line of commercials recently debuted, featuring a baby “turbo” hamster running through a hospital and eventually making its way to the new Kia Soul Turbo. So what do consumers think of this latest ad? We asked 1,000 respondents about their thoughts on Kia and other car brands and then tested the ad to see if it made any difference.
Automotive Consumers
In Ask Your Target Market’s latest online survey, 83% of respondents said they currently own or lease a vehicle. And another 5% have in the past. Of those respondents, just 14% said they’ve owned a Kia vehicle at some point. And 7% currently own a Kia. In addition, 73% of respondents said they are at least somewhat likely to purchase or lease another vehicle at some point in the future.
Kia Hamster Ad
Overall, just 5% of respondents said they would be certain or practically certain about choosing Kia for their next car purchase. And 13% said it would be very probable. Of those who viewed the Kia turbo ad, 7% said they would be certain or practically certain about choosing Kia for their next car purchase. And 14% said it would be very probable. Additionally, 51% of respondents who viewed the ad said that they’ve seen other commercials with the Kia hamsters in the past. Of those who have already seen Kia hamster ads, 7% said they would be certain or practically certain about choosing Kia for their next car purchase. And 15% said it would be very probable.
Kia Brand Attributes
In general, respondents identified Kia as a brand that is affordable, cheap, reliable, fun, small, quality, dependable, modern and innovative. Those who viewed the Kia turbo ad were a bit more likely to consider the brand to be fun, innovative and modern.
Key Takeaways
The latest Kia ad does seem to have the potential to make an impact on people’s buying decision, even in an industry where changing customers’ minds can be difficult and time consuming. Kia is still one of the smaller brands compared to others in the U.S. market, so having recurring characters in ads could be a good strategy to get consumers to actually remember the brand when they go to make purchases. But in this case, people who had seen past ads with the Kia hamsters were only slightly more likely to be impacted by the ad. So it could be a good opportunity for the brand to expand its audience and then go back at that same audience with similar messaging in the future. You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: 102_4572 by James R under CC BY 2.0What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.
Results were collected on July 5 via AYTM’s online survey panel.
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