What it had to solve
Communicate the connectivity of Kia's most complete Sorento to date — Find my Car and VoiceRecognition via the UVO CONNECT app — in a way that would grab people's attention.
The idea
A hippie lost in a car park since the 60s recruits the carless — but a Sorento driver with the UVO CONNECT app never needs to join them.
How it works
Innocean Berlin partnered with director Björn Rühmann of Zauberberg Productions on a surreal film: an old hippie and a ragtag bunch of misfits haunt the car park, until a Sorento driver walks in, locates his car instantly and drives off without ever joining them.
What it did
No audience or business results were reported; LBB featured the film as the launch story for the Sorento's connectivity, with ECD Ricardo Wolff's line that technology could never be boring with a hippie, a roller girl and a skeleton dog.
Background
For the launch of its most connected Sorento yet, Kia and its global creative agency Innocean Berlin had to sell features drivers barely think about: Find my Car and VoiceRecognition through the UVO CONNECT app, which keeps drivers in touch with their car wherever they are. Their answer, released in July 2020, was 'One of Us'.
The film imagines an old hippie who has been lost in a supermarket parking lot since the 1960s. Over the years he has been joined by a ragtag bunch of misfits in a similar situation — among them a roller girl and a skeleton dog. When a Sorento driver enters the lot looking for his car, the hippie sees a potential new recruit, only to watch the driver find the car instantly thanks to the UVO CONNECT app.
To bring the weird story to life, Innocean partnered with director Björn Rühmann of Zauberberg Productions. Executive creative director Ricardo Wolff said the team wanted to give a human face to the technology in the new Sorento: technology can be a dry subject, but with a hippie, a roller girl and a skeleton dog it could never be boring.
Why it lands
Connectivity is intangible, so the film dramatises the exact moment it matters: not finding your car.
Casting the stranded as a 60s holdout and his misfit gang turns a functional benefit into a story with a punchline.
A deadpan surreal tone keeps a spec-driven launch film from playing like a feature list.
What you can take
Feature demos tell, absurd characters show: giving dry tech a human face — even a skeleton dog — makes a find-my-car app worth watching.
Since then
The source records no performance results or follow-up; LBB documented the film and its full credits as the launch story for the Sorento's UVO CONNECT features.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE