Dive Brief:

• Kia is opting not to run any advertisements on the Super Bowl this year and is instead hoping to attract consumers’ attention via a mobile game that ties into the on-screen action, per a press release.
• For Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 9), Kia is introducing “Kia Squares,” its version of a popular game in which players select squares on a 10x10 grid, with rows and columns randomly assigned number values between 0-9. If the numbers correspond to the last digit of each team’s score at the end of each quarter, players will be entered into a random drawing to win one of four Kia vehicles.
• Kia’s activation is one of several taking place this year by brands looking to capture consumers’ attention through mobile initiatives rather than through expensive Super Bowl ad buys. A 30-second spot during this year’s broadcast reportedly cost more than $7 million. 

Dive Insight:

Kia is just one of a growing number of perennial Super Bowl advertisers to opt out of purchasing a national presence during the big game to instead invest their money in a second-screen promotion to capture viewers’ attention. Avocados from Mexico, Courtyard by Marriott, Twix and Tums are all running marketing campaigns during or around the game (but not within it). 

“Every year, we’re part of the Super Bowl conversation. This year, we wanted fans to engage with our brand for more than 60 seconds,” said Ben Purcell, chief creative officer at David&Goliath, the agency that created the campaign, in a statement. “The Kia Squares game is the perfect fusion of sports and technology.”

Kia’s effort began before the action kicks off on the field, as the brand’s social channels have been directing audiences to a mobile-optimized site since Feb. 4. Once there, players will have the opportunity to choose their spot on the grid represented by one of the four car models to be given away, for their chance to win that vehicle. 

“This creative approach allows us to interact with fans of the game – and fans of the Kia brand – at multiple points during the broadcast," said Russell Wager, vice president of marketing for Kia America, in a statement. “Instead of being passive observers during the game, people can actively participate in the sweepstakes and engage with popular social media platforms – Instagram and TikTok.”

Auto manufacturers have a long history of using the second screen to hijack attention, or at least try to, during the Super Bowl. In 2018, Mercedes-Benz unsuccessfully attempted to run a “Last Fan Standing” contest that asked at-home viewers to hold a finger on an image of a Mercedes car. The person who held their finger on the image the longest would win. However, the effort ran into technical difficulties and never got off the ground. 

Undeterred, Volvo ran a similar promo the following year, challenging smartphone and tablet owners to activate a mobile website and keep their eyes on a video of a car for as long as possible. The three people who kept their view the longest had the chance to win a Care by Volvo subscription to the automaker’s S60 sedan. In 2022, the carmaker followed that effort with a counterprogramming campaign that featured 26 videos of young children explaining how electric vehicles worked.