An Alabama-built Hyundai SUV will be featured in one of the most anticipated movies of the year when “Spider-Man: No Way Home” swings into theaters next month.
Hyundai announced Monday its all-new Hyundai Ioniq 5 and all-new Hyundai Tucson will make their Hollywood debut in the Sony Pictures film.
The Tucson is built at the automaker’s plant in Montgomery. Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama (HMMA) has said it plans to produce electric vehicles starting next year but has not revealed which model or models might be produced there. The Ioniq 5 is currently made in South Korea.
“Hyundai Motor Group has a number of innovative vehicle designs they can place in movies and TV shows to market the Hyundai brand on a global scale,” said Robert Burns, vice president of Human Resources and Administration for HMMA. “Including the all-new Tucson in the latest Spider-Man movie will add another reason for our team members to be proud of the Alabama-built vehicles they help build for the North American market.”
Hyundai Motor Company has launched an integrated marketing program leading up to the Dec. 17 release of No Way Home. The campaign includes a global TV commercial and a variety of digital promotional activities. The campaign stems from the global multi-picture promotional partnership Hyundai Motor inked with Sony Pictures in May 2020 to showcase the company’s human-centered mobility vision through product and technological innovations.
“The placement of the all-electric Ioniq 5 and all-new Tucson in ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ marks the first meaningful milestone in the strategic partnership between Hyundai Motor Company and Sony Pictures Entertainment,” said Thomas Schemera, executive vice president, global chief marketing officer and head of the Customer Experience Division of Hyundai Motor Company. “We expect great marketing impact from this collaboration. This exciting film and the two vehicles’ inclusion in key moments of the storyline played by the main characters will exhilarate the minds of millions of viewers around the world.”
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” is the third Spider-Man film created by Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios, starring Tom Holland, who plays the role of high-schooler Peter Parker and his alias, Spider-Man. Its predecessor “Spider-Man: Far from Home” grossed $1.131 billion worldwide as the fourth highest grossing movie of 2019 and the 25th highest grossing movie of all time.
“Hyundai is synonymous with leading technology and visually innovative design. So, it comes as no surprise that they have created a cutting-edge marketing campaign for the Ioniq 5 and the highly anticipated ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ – the foundation of which is customized content made exclusively for this deal. We have no doubt that Spider-Man fans will have a lot of fun with this innovative collaboration,” said Jeffrey Godsick, executive vice president of Global Partnerships and Brand Management and head of Location Based Entertainment at Sony Pictures Entertainment.
In addition to the product-placement, the campaign includes the long-form commercial, “Only Way Home,” which is directed by Jon Watts, the director of all three of the most recent Spider-Man films, and features Tom Holland as Spider-Man and his best friend Ned Leeds played by Jacob Batalon.
In this TV spot, Spider-Man is bent on clearing his name and comes out of hiding, hitching a 300-mile ride to New York with Ned in the all-electric Ioniq 5. The two characters cruise their way through open country inside the sunlight-reflecting, futuristic-looking Ioniq 5, exchanging banter along the way. A 30-second broadcast version will air as part of high-visibility television programs in the U.S., Europe, China, Russia and other global markets through January 2022.
“Advanced technology empowers the extraordinary, and that’s why we think Ioniq 5 is a great fit for the latest Spider-Man movie,” said Angela Zepeda, chief marketing officer of Hyundai Motor America. “Our promotional partnerships with characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been highly effective, and we think Spider-Man fans around the world will enjoy what we’ve created, while learning more about our breakthrough all-electric SUV.”
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Hyundai Motor has also created a 30-second commercial featuring the Tucson. The commercial shows key scenes from the film, including those starring the Tucson and Tom Holland.
On social media, Hyundai will offer fans the opportunity to obtain a “Hyundai Ioniq 5 x Spider-Man: No Way Home” special edition poster, as well as customized digital wallpapers. A behind-the-scenes video of the Ioniq 5 commercial and other unique contents will also be available online.
“We look at these partnerships as an opportunity to bring content to life that celebrates both brands. By putting Spider-Man in a one-story world, where he has only one way home, we were able to seamlessly give Hyundai a chance to save the day,” said Barney Goldberg, executive create director, Innocean USA.
Following Spider-Man: No Way Home, Hyundai will have marketing initiatives related to the upcoming films “Uncharted,” due to premiere in February 2022, and the sequel to the critically acclaimed, Academy Award-winning animated film, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” due to premiere in October 2022.