Kia Motors US and imeem iPhone App.
Kia Motors US has signed up to be the first advertiser on the imeem Google iPhone application. Kia will use this medium to further brand their Kia Soul vehicle. Some would think it’s a brave move on the part of this manufacturer, being the ‘earliest’ adopter of the app., however, this is just a sample of things to come from import OEM’s as they take advantage of the declining revenue factors hitting the domestic automakers. Even though it would appear that the average import OEM won’t need to spend as much as previous on advertising, while the domestics figure out their public cry for government aid to keep afloat, I think the opposite will ring true. Import OEM’s will set out to attract the once domestic auto buyer with new, innovative and creative interactive, using social networks, popular online platforms, video and of course mobile. To put it plainly they will try the “hit em’ while their down” approach to gain additional market share. With this being said, the issue of having too few import dealers around to make up for meaningful advertising dollars for traditional media, may be slightly offset by what I think will be their need to keep top of mind presence, win-back lost customers, and gain new one’s who were once loyal to a domestic buy.
We’ve seen many auto makers dabble in the space of new media, but I think over the next couple of months we will see a sleeping domestic effort when it comes savvy interactive, while import dealers and OEM’s proper continue to explore.
As an aside, and for those of you who are interested, imeem also released additional features yesterday:
- Location-based streaming stations featuring the most popular music in the user’s city
- Detailed artist bios
- Artist recommendations to help fans discover similar artists to the ones they already love
- An all-new seasonal station featuring popular holiday music
