Kia America’s Super Bowl Ad Celebrates the Power Within Us All

A gifted young figure skater finishes an impressive routine as a packed audience cheers her on. She glances at her father beaming with pride, until they notice the empty chair next to him, of someone special missing, someone she wishes was there. On the way home, her father has an idea, one that leads to a truly meaningful, magical moment. 

At the cornerstone of Kia’s fully integrated Super Bowl campaign, created by David&Goliath, is an aspirational 60-second spot titled “Perfect 10,” which debuted today, 2/8 on the TODAY Show, directed by celebrated film director John Hillcoat of Serial Pictures, the ad follows the dad as he drives off road with his stylishly rugged EV9, around a windy, snow-covered, tree-laced mountain. As they arrive at their destination, the young girl smiles as her dad uses the EV9’s onboard power station to electrify a string of lights and a speaker in front of a frozen pond to set the stage for her performance. This time she performs for an audience of one – her grandpa. Set to the hypnotic, moving track “Wish I Was Here” released in 2014 by Cat Power and Coldplay, you can’t help but get pulled into this singular emotional moment as her grandfather peers out the window with tears in his eyes, watching his granddaughter’s captivating solo. And gives her a perfect 10, hand to heart as the joy and power within her shines through. This young girl and the EV9 illustrate that we all have the power to do incredible things. It’s what we do with that power that truly matters. 

“We all have this power within us to do incredible things in life, big or small. Knowing that this power exists is the first step. To launch the all-electric, three-row EV9, Kia’s most impressive, powerful vehicle to date, we wanted to lean into that message by illuminating what’s possible when power meets functionality meets inspiration,” said David Angelo, founder and creative chairman of David&Goliath. “Because when that magic combination occurs, anything is possible. Our goal is to inspire the world’s biggest audience with a Super Bowl experience that evokes that emotion felt when creating something incredible from power; with the hope it motivates them to bring their own power to life.”

Building on the momentum of the ad’s powerful message, the campaign will include a TikTok integration that inspires fans to post their own electrifying performance to earn Perfect 10s using the app's Duet feature. Tomorrow, 2/9, Kia will post a clip of the grandpa from the ad scoring a Perfect 10 on the window. The video will encourage TikTok users to duet the grandpa with their own performance as he watches. To encourage participation with TikTok users, we have partnered with eight influencers who will also duet with the grandpa. Users will do everything they can from ‘ice skate’ in their living room, to bake, to paint to get their perfect 10 from the grandpa.

In addition to the TikTok duet, we will turn smartphones into picturesque snow globes, using TikTok’s latest Shake Surprise feature - where users are invited to shake their phones and create a flurry of snow over the winter wonderland from our spot. This will then lead them to Kia.com. But that’s not all. Posts of the spot will light up social media, illustrating the power of the EV9’s V2L onboard power station, once again perpetuating ‘electric like you’ve never seen’. 

This inspirational theme of power and grace is part of a larger integrated campaign celebrating the EV9 launch, Kia’s most technologically advanced vehicle yet.

“The Kia EV9 is electric like you’ve never seen, and ‘Perfect 10’ will introduce our groundbreaking three-row EV SUV to more than 100 million people with a heartwarming story about the power we all have inside of us, the power to make someone smile,” said Russell Wager, vice president, marketing, Kia America.

Additional campaign assets include :30, :15 and :06 cut downs of the :60 spot, digital and social media extensions.

Check out our Collection of every Super Bowl 2024 ad so far here.