South Africa's bakkie market is not a category you waltz into. It's built on decades of loyalty, mud-caked Veldskoen, and brand worship that gets passed down for generations.
Entering that space with no heritage or emotional equity accumulated over decades of Highveld road trips is a real problem, and leading not with toughness but with comfort is a creative call with real risk attached.
So, when Kia Motors launched the Tasman, the first-ever Kia bakkie, the idea wasn't "out-tough the tough guys"; it was something far more interesting: don't play the game, they're already winning.
For the creative and strategic agency team walking into a space where decades of a similar story, told well, by brands people genuinely love, has led to the bakkie market being one of the most brand-loyal categories in the country, was a real challenge.
But the team says they believe the best advertising is truth well told.
“And the truth about Tasman is it’s a real, rugged, powerful bakkie, but inside the Tasman is where the game changes.
“While the rest of the category talks tough, the Tasman interior is anything but tough. It is business class comfort. Luxury SUV handling and ride.
“This contrast between toughness and smoothness is our sweet spot. It’s also a chink in the armour of our competitors.”
The team - instead of joining the chorus – made the category’s one usual drawback visible.
“Let’s be honest, we’ve almost all been in a bakkie that hasn’t been a super comfortable ride. So, we shook the whole world, but we left one man still.”
The spot opens on a shaking town; a visual exaggeration of what South African roads actually deliver to bakkie drivers every single day, and what those drivers have quietly accepted as the cost of admission for 40 years.
Then there's the Tasman. Standing bold and still. The driver isn't bracing or grimacing; he's just driving, composed in a world that vibrates around him.
The commercial earns its claim through experience rather than argument. And then the line lands: Built for rough. Tuned for smooth.
The commercial's job was to make the category's invisible problem visible and solve it in a single image.
It's a textbook case of finding your competitor's blind spot and walking through it.
Albrecht Gründel - Director of sales marketing
Barend Smit - Head of marketing & digital operations
Chris Gotz - National creative director
Louise Newman - Deputy Creative Director and Copywriter
Aakifah Rodrigues - Deputy creative director and art director
Jamie Moss - Deputy creative director and art director
Timothy Young - Business director
Jill Garnham - Head of production
Anton Visser - Director
Deenan Naidoo - Senior producer
Ricky Boyd - Editor
Marco Raposo de Barbosa - VFX supervisor
Paula Raphael - Producer
Nic Apostoli - Colourist
Rob Brinkworth - Sounder designer
