CASE STUDY

Bulldog DM live streaming amplifies
new Hyundai model launches

The Opportunity

Hyundai Motor America, one of the world’s leading car manufacturers, approached the New York International Auto Show exploring ways to directly engage with prospective drivers as well as existing Hyundai customers. Hyundai planned to make several important announcements at the NYIAS, and to reveal and launch two new vehicles: the entry-level SUV Venue crossover and the all-new 2020 Sonata.

The Experience

The Hyundai PR and social teams viewed the auto show as an important platform for media, but wanted to amplify their strategy and offer a real-time connection with today’s connected consumer; namely the target demo for the Venue: young adults just beginning their careers, who are looking for innovation and value in an entry-level SUV. This new segment demographic for Hyundai comprised first-time SUV buyers who live in urban centers around the world and would be attracted to the compact footprint of the Venue, combined with advanced technologies and safety features including lane keep assist, rear cross traffic alert, auto emergency braking, and blind spot detection.

The 2020 Sonata highlighted its design evolution focused on “sensuous sportiness.” The visual style of the vehicle was perfect for a live stream; showcasing the lower, wider, sexier model as well as innovative features including a shareable secure digital key, customizable displays and high-speed mobile phone charging.
Hyundai had prepared a professional and rich event production to showcase their latest design and innovation in both models.

With the eyes of the automotive press on the presentation, Hyundai realized the compelling opportunity to share the real-time experience with consumers anywhere and on any device via a live stream broadcast.

The Partnership

Hyundai vetted several partners and selected Bulldog DM for this critical piece of their business. It was important for Hyundai to work with a partner that knew all aspects of a live stream broadcast including the challenges presented at the venue and logistical level, as well as procuring adequate on-premise bandwidth and navigating the various social media platforms. “We found that Bulldog DM understood our concerns about managing all of the technical and operational logistics of amplifying our presentation to the world via live streaming. The New York International Auto Show is of critical importance to our global marketing initiatives, and we needed a partner that could both meet and exceed our expectations. We found that in Bulldog DM,” said Michael Stewart, Hyundai Senior Group Manager, Corporate and Marketing Public Relations.

Hyundai and Bulldog DM built a distribution strategy that offered the professional HD video feed of the live experience across all of Hyundai’s social media channels: YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Hyundai also implemented Bulldog’s Instagram Live solution that allows for streaming of the professionally-produced feed instead of the UGC Instagram default of live streaming only from a camera phone via the Instagram app. Followers of the @Hyundiausa Instagram account — over 559K – received alerts that @Hyundaiusa was live broadcasting.

Hyundai did not stop there though, offering a Bulldog DM-produced second live broadcast that featured the vehicles’ designer giving a real time walkthrough of both cars, showcasing its features for live viewers globally. Sangyup Lee, SVP Head of Hyundai Global Design Center explained the design process and thinking behind many of Hyundai’s most innovative design elements in the vehicle, a rare treat for viewers.

The Implementation

Bulldog DM and Hyundai worked through a set of live streaming technical best practices for the broadcast:

1. Site survey – the teams reviewed the Jacob Javits Center location to determine the feasibility of a multi-platform live broadcast utilizing available in-venue bandwidth for high traffic show like NYAIS
2. Bulldog DM created a redundant broadcast transmission strategy that eliminated any single point of failure and ensured that the live stream remained on-air the entirety of the live event and broadcast.
3. Bulldog DM provisioned a robust and redundant live encoding solution that included state of the art encoding hardware and failover for a high-end broadcast-quality workflow.
4. The dedicated streams were tested before the live broadcast and directly published to the Hyundai USA social media channels on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.
5. A branded user interface was created for the broadcast on Hyundai’s Instagram account to create a high quality presentation layer of the video feed.
6. Bulldog DM produced the post-event live interviews as well as the vehicle designer walkthroughs with a local camera and audio crew to augment Hyundai’s event production partner’s press event video feed.
7. The entire experience was quality-control monitored by Bulldog DM both on premise and at their Network Operations Center.

The Result

Hyundai was able to achieve a significant return on their live stream amplification strategy that showcased their emphasis on technology and innovation. Tens of thousands of viewers watched the broadcast live in real-time as well as logging nearly 75,000 views of the presentation on YouTube alone and another 25,000 YouTube views of the designer’s vehicle walkthroughs.

The live streaming strategy helped contribute to the 260 million impressions Hyundai garnered at NYIAS.

“Hyundai really embraced the power of live streaming and amplifying compelling real-time moments across viewer hubs on all social media platforms. We were thrilled with how they embraced a live streaming strategy and the results speak for themselves. We specialize in helping brands use live streaming as an important counter-measure to cord cutting, ad blocking and brand safety and we’re aware that 63% of millennials watch live video and 42% of them create it. Hyundai is a company that clearly understands innovation and their grasp of live streaming strongly reflects that grasp,” commented Bulldog DM CEO John Petrocelli.

“This strategy far exceeded our expectations and live streaming helped us obtain an impactful start and impression with the consumer we want to reach: millennials and Gen Zs. Bulldog DM helped us achieve our goals and take our strategy to new heights by expanding to additional social media platforms. Their redundant workflow and professional management of our live content gave us great peace of mind and confidence,” said Miles Johnson, Hyundai Senior Manager, Quality, Service and Technology Public Relations.