Kia Beat the Beat

While there were a number of objectives we needed to hit with the experiential marketing activation, the brief itself was relatively unrestricted. Kia gave us a lot of creative space to play. They wanted audiences to have a fun, memorable experience, and they trusted us to get them there. So, moving away from more straightforward automotive marketing, our goal was to create a more abstract, emotional experience that would stimulate the senses, create memories, and ultimately turn the idea of the test drive on its head.

For us, the creative opportunity of Kia Beat the Beat lay in inviting audiences to step inside the Seltos universe and experience deconstructed elements of the car’s design in interesting and unusual ways. We took advantage of this opportunity by crafting a physically immersive experiential marketing game. Audiences would dance across an interactive floor to navigate a Kia Seltos through an evolving virtual world. The more beats they hit, the more dynamic their soundtrack and the more vibrant the visualisation before them.

When we were conceptualising Beat the Beat we took inspiration from a number of places. First was Kia’s newly released advertisement featuring Billie Eilish’s hit track ‘Bad Guy’. This, along with the Seltos’ advanced audio and lighting features, helped to define our strong focus on music. We were also inspired by the sleek lines and modern design of the Seltos itself, which we used as the visual basis for our experimentation with gamification as an experiential marketing mechanic.

One of the most exciting parts about this project was the hardware we were interfacing with, and the fact that it has not been extensively explored as an HCI – human control interface – for interactive experiences. Instead of touch triggers, we adapted a LiDAR scanner to track visitor movement and provide game input. This was then combined with a 5x3m LED wall, an equivalently sized LED floor, a dedicated game machine and registration tablets all integrated into a bespoke hardware solution.

Working with custom hardware is always an exciting challenge. On one hand, it allows us to develop interesting, intuitive ways to interact. On the other, there’s a significant amount of work and time that needs to go into design, acquisition and construction. One of the most nail-biting of these logistical challenges during production of Kia Beat the Beat was getting the custom-built LED floors in time – not just to install, but also to test.

Unavoidable delays meant that we essentially had to create the entire game without being able to play it. We had to try a lot of unusual methods to try and replicate what the experience would feel like – from projectors to mirrors to touchpads. At the end of the day, game testing involved a lot of finger tapping that eventually turned into foot tapping before shipping the hardware off to the event.

While we don’t like to do the same thing twice, we do like to build on what we’ve learnt before. In this case, Beat the Beat presented the perfect opportunity to expand on our learnings from Kia Caraoke Studio. Nowhere was that more apparent than in our approach to lighting. While our lighting would be outside, rather than inside, the car this time, we knew its power to draw audiences and get them in the mood to dance.

To achieve that all-important wow factor, we spent a lot of time refining the user journey of the experiential marketing activation. From carefully considered colours within our in-game content to sparks of excitement through atmospheric lighting, we constructed an immersive environment that surprised and delighted audiences in equal measure.

At an event as big as the Australian Open, you’re assured to have times when there’s a long line waiting for an experience. To keep the crowds entertained – and to draw people to the experience – we considered this waiting audience as participants in their own right. This meant that Kia Beat the Beat would need to be engaging not just for active players but also for the passive audience watching on.

As with all projects, nothing can really prepare you for bump in. There are just too many variables. This time around we went from working in scorching 40°C heat to torrential rain to thick bushfire smoke. That said, there’s a special kind of camaraderie that comes with working in intense conditions with a diverse team. As always, bump in proved that the people you’re working with – and their ability to collaborate and problem solve under stress – are the most important part.