Kia has launched an interactive vehicle configurator experience on TikTok, leveraging the short-form video platform’s massive young-adult audience to create a new way for potential customers to explore and personalize their next vehicle purchase. The tool, which allows users to build and visualize different configurations of Kia models through TikTok’s interface, represents a bet by the Korean automaker that meeting consumers on the platforms they use most frequently is more effective than directing them to traditional dealer websites. The approach is generating interest from automotive marketing observers watching how brands adapt their strategies for younger audiences.
Kia’s use of TikTok comes with a complicated backdrop, given the Korean brand’s past association with the platform in connection with the viral spread of vehicle theft tutorials that contributed to a major theft wave. The brand has worked hard to move past that association, and the configurator tool represents an attempt to create positive content connections with the platform’s user base. Whether TikTok proves to be an effective channel for actually converting viewers into vehicle purchasers remains to be seen, but as an awareness-building tool it has clear potential given the platform’s reach.
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