On Sunday, September 18 during NBC’s Sunday Night Football, Kia Motors America will tap into the nostalgic value of Koei Tecmo’s classic Nintendo 8-Bit video game Tecmo Bowl. Anyone who played that classic football game knows that Bo Jackson was a beast in that virtual gridiron experience—so Kia is resurrecting the game franchise in a pair of new spots featuring Jackson and fellow NFL legend Brian Bosworth to market its Sorento SUV.
In the campaign, Bo and “The Boz” are transported into a world with Tecmo Bowl’s signature 8-bit graphics and sound effects. The spots, called “Tecmo Bros” and “Tecmo Bo,” feature the NFL legends interacting with and driving the Sorento into the video game field. Koei Tecmo licensed the game to Kia Motors America for this campaign.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03xnpYW5J68
Michael Sprague, chief operating officer and EVP at Kia Motors America, told [a]listdaily that nearly three decades after its release, Tecmo Bowl is still considered one of the best sports video games of all time.
“We saw an opportunity to connect with consumers and showcase the Sorento SUV in a way that’s never been done before,” Sprague said. “When our agency brought the opportunity to work with Bo Jackson, who is widely known as the game’s most unstoppable player, it was too good to pass up.”
From a technology standpoint, the team behind these spots heavily researched Tecmo Bowl references, and based upon that, they enlisted New York-based Method VFX to recreate the 8-bit look completely from scratch. The team went to great lengths to make sure that the classic Tecmo game look was recreated in full high-definition to look exactly like the original game.
Now that video games aren’t niche anymore, they are more than just another media opportunity. They serve as creative inspiration. They give Kia Motors America a whole other universe with its own culture and language to mine for ideas. Most people can relate to the joys and strife of video games. It makes for some great creative fodder.
Sprague said the Sorento target buyer demographic is the generation that first grew up with Tecmo Bowl: 35-to-50-year-old males now with families of their own. “We wanted to take a great childhood memory and give it new life through a fresh lens, and went to great lengths to keep the Tecmo graphics and sound effects authentic while incorporating a modern twist with live-action footage,” Sprague said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYT0vS4Z2d4
Football fans don’t just remember Tecmo Bowl; there’s a real love for that game that still exists today. Kia Motors America wanted to be sure and respect that by staying as true to the game as possible, while incorporating its message in a way that was organic and fun. This marks the third year Kia Motors America has advertised on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Sprague said sports is one of the company’s core marketing pillars, and there is no bigger audience in primetime television than Sunday Night Football.
“Last year, Sorento sales were up more than 13 percent, and we attribute a lot of that gain to the exposure on Sunday Night Football,” Sprague said. “In addition to increased Sorento sales, we have also experienced spikes in visits to Kia.com and activity on our social media channels over the last three seasons with Sunday Night Football, and our dealers tell us the show drives customers into their stores to discover what the new Kia has to offer.”
For those too young to remember the classic Tecmo Bowl game, EA Sports has brought Jackson into its Madden franchise. There are three different versions of “ultimate legend” Jackson in Madden NFL 17 through the Madden Ultimate Team mode. Nintendo is also launching the mini NES Classic Edition on November 11, and one of the 30 pack-in games is Tecmo Bowl.
“Tecmo Bowl is a cult classic with multi-generational appeal,” Sprague said. “Players of all ages participate in tournaments around the country, and the phenomenal response we’ve received since releasing the spots prove the campaign is resonating with people who are young-at-heart, regardless of their age.”
Kia has seen its US sales more than double since the Soul was first introduced in 2009. Sprague said commercial campaigns have been a big reason for that success. Jackson follows in the footsteps of the hamsters. “As some of the most-watched advertising icons in the world, our music-loving hamsters have played a major role in attracting younger and more style-conscious consumers to the brand,” Sprague said.
Even after all of these years, Bo still knows football. And Tecmo Bowl.