Soul debut at LA International Auto Show

[Administrator]

By Alex Fedorak

Director, Public Relations, Kia Motors America

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More than 450 media and guests attended the North American debut of the Soul this past Thursday, November 20th at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show.* Thursday was the second day of the media preview and a pall was cast over the show with all the activities in Washington D.C. and the Big 3.* Next to the Kia booth was the abandoned Chrysler display, which featured vehicles but no auxiliary lighting or even staff; it was a very gloomy scene overall.*

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In this setting, KMA embarked on their own press conference and dazzled all those in attendance with its fun, clever and interesting Soul debut.* Since the Soul had already been show in Paris earlier this year the KMA PR team decided to focus on demonstrating its knowledge on how to market and sell to the exciting Soul to the Gen Y audience.*

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A press conference was created that featured V.P. Sales Tom Loveless talking about the Soul while his twin college-age children instant messaged each other on a screen behind him, both poking fun at their dad while admiring the car.* Using IM-speak, the Loveless twins were the hit of the conference and helped prove the point that even though their father was not Gen Y he understood Gen Y because they lived with him.

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From there Michael Sprague, V.P. marketing, introduced something KMA calls