We Make Wah

HYUNDAI

AGENCY: INNOCEAN WORLDWIDE CANADA
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTION: IAN MACKELLAR
CREATIVE DIRECTION: KEVIN BÉLANGER / DAVID STRASSER

How do you re-introduce a brand that Canadians are familiar with, but don’t really know all that well? How do you convey a success story of innovation, safety, and pride of ownership?

Then, how do you tell the whole story with a single word?

The answer was WAH, a Korean word with universal applications.

WAH became our brand's guiding light. A rallying cry for everyone in the organization and the standard that drivers should expect from our vehicles.

It embraced something once seen as a weakness — our Korean heritage — and turned it into a superpower. It promised something that the competition couldn't and gave us what was sorely lacking in our communication to date: confidence.

To get WAH into the Canadian vernacular we needed to say it loud and often. That meant lots and lots of production on our end. Work that not only needed to inspire, but to educate. We needed to define WAH in terms the average Canadian would understand.

If you watch NHL hockey, WAH has been hard to miss. As the Official Automotive Partner of the league, hockey-themed brand messages became a cornerstone of the launch, using hockey moments for storytelling and NHL personalities as storytellers.

But broadcast doesn’t tell the entire WAH story.

From splashy out of home placements, to national newsprint, to TikTok posts and on-the-ground messaging at dealerships, the campaign continues to have legs.