The Canvas Worldwide Team behind the Kia K5 launch took home the Gold at the Internationalist Awards for Innovation in Media. Dubbed a death-defying media plan, the Kia K5 launch included as many adrenaline-fueled, hair-raising stunts as the ads promoting the cars themselves!

The Kia K5 offers drivers a turbo-charged alternative to the bland sedan — and our team knew we had to showcase that at every opportunity. Action-packed stunts were a great antidote to the hours of video conference calls, pandemic news binge-watching, and socially-distanced time killers we were all experiencing.

We also recognized that the summer of 2020 was not going to see the typical media drop-off as families headed off to vacation. Streaming was spiking, social media was surging — people were just watching more of anything. The Kia team crafted a content-powered strategy to shake some excitement into living rooms, laptops, and mobile phones across the country.

To do this, we coordinated never-before-seen *live* stunts and repackaged and repurposed the content across ALL touchpoints. There was one absolute certainty: no one was going to think the K5 was just another sedan. The event — dubbed The Triple Threat Stunt — launched two cars off a ramp while the third slid into a 180- degree spin under them simultaneously. The live-stream video was hosted by professional driver Collete Davis and directed by Darrin Prescott who had previously directed driving stunts in films like Ford v. Ferrari, Baby Driver, Drive, and Black Panther. Fortunately, the stars aligned. The feed had 400,000 viewers and the K5 looked incredible. 

Most importantly, our paid execution performed beautifully and exceeded all benchmarks by more than triple the estimate. Everyone was talking about the Kia K5 — and the perfectly executed stunt that lured car aficionados and auto consumers alike.