Kia Motors India has basically rewound its Carnival commercial to spread the message
The Indian automotive industry has been going through a tough period with back-to-back challenges such as BS6 implementation, model updates, general market degrowth and now, COVID-19 aka corona virus. Many OEMs have shut down their manufacturing facilities to slow down the spread of COVID-19 and thereby ‘flatten the curve’.
With overall automotive sales figures hitting virtually zero units in the past few days (and until whenever the lockdown is withdrawn), automakers are doing the most through connected services and social media. Popular names in the industry have also shared creative awareness posts on their respective handles in photo, video or even just written formats. Now, Kia Motors India has opted a rather interesting way to spread awareness on COVID-19 and the current social distancing protocols.
Kia Carnival TVC video
The marketing team of Kia Motors India definitely consists of some minds who can think out of the box. They essentially rewound (or ‘rewinded’?) the Kia Carnival’s TVC which was shared earlier in February. In the original video, the lead character can be seen going for a date in his Carnival. Meanwhile, Kia Motors India’s new #RewindKia campaign plays the same video in reverse and tells viewers to stay home.
The Kia Carnival was launched back at Auto Expo 2020 at a starting price of Rs 24.95 lakh ex-showroom. The luxury minivan bridges the gap between products such as the Toyota Innova Crysta and Mercedes-Benz V-Class. It is powered by a 2.2-litre diesel mill that makes 197bhp and 440Nm of torque while mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission — read our detailed first-drive review.
COVID-19 has affected the world as a whole and many industries are facing severe losses that could be irrecoverable even in the long run. India’s automotive industry has been witnessing losses in the range of a thousand crores with each passing day. The worst affected among the lot are small-scale businesses such as secondary automotive dealerships that do not have proper financial backing from a larger firm.
On the other hand, the Indian government has extended the deadline to sell BS4 vehicles ‘conditionally’. Previously, no BS4 vehicle could be legally sold and registered in the country from 1 April 2020. Now, dealerships can sell 10% of their leftover BS4 stock for 10 days post the lockdown. As one could easily guess, this will not make matters much better and several dealerships are moving towards inevitable losses.