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Kia Australia Goes Zombie Proof to Sell the Case for Electric
Kia Australia's 'Shhh… It's zombie proof.' is a 2025 film campaign produced by Innocean Australia that positions the brand's all-electric vehicle range as capable of handling any situation — including a zombie apocalypse — by foregrounding the quiet operation, advanced driver-assist features, and versatile performance of Kia EVs for Australian drivers.
Launched in January 2025 to coincide with the Australian Open, the campaign centres on a single, deadpan creative premise: because Kia's electric vehicles run silently, they offer an unlikely but logical advantage in a zombie outbreak. The film demonstrates real product features — including Voice Command, Smart Park Assist, insulated tyres, and vehicle cooling systems — by embedding each one inside the logic of zombie survival. The campaign specifically promotes the EV5 and EV9 models within Kia's all-electric range, giving the film both an entertainment function and a direct product showcase role.
The campaign was produced in Australia by Division, directed by François Rousselet, and stars a cast including Luke Arnold, Tess Haubrich, Chloe Zuel, and Jamie Durie as a zombie tradie, according to reporting by LBB Online. More than 100 movement artists were cast as zombies, each given a recognisably Australian suburban character. The result is a film that operates simultaneously as genre entertainment and automotive product communication, targeting Australian consumers at a moment when electric vehicle consideration is rising across the national market. Clapboard awarded the campaign a score of 74 out of 100.
Kia Australia holds a defined position in a competitive national market. According to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Kia delivered 82,105 vehicles across Australia in 2025, representing approximately 6.8 percent of the national new-vehicle market and ranking the brand fourth behind Toyota, Ford, and Mazda. That same year, the Australian new-vehicle market exceeded 1.2 million total deliveries, per the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, making it one of the largest sales environments in the Asia-Pacific region.
Kia's year-on-year sales growth was 0.4 percent in 2025, a broadly flat result in a market where its nearest competitors were losing ground — Ford recorded a 5.8 percent year-on-year decline and Mazda approximately 4.2 percent, according to data reported by carexpert.com.au. Toyota led the market with 239,863 deliveries and 19.8 percent share, per the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries. Against this backdrop, Kia's strategic imperative is less about total volume defence and more about category leadership in the electric vehicle segment, where quietness, technology integration, and adaptability are points of meaningful differentiation.
The 'Shhh… It's zombie proof.' campaign addresses a specific consumer tension: electric vehicles are often perceived as novel or uncertain technology, and the zombie scenario functions as a narrative device that reframes every EV feature as a proven capability under pressure. In the Australian market, where carexpert.com.au has documented growing consumer interest in EV range and charging infrastructure, Kia's decision to lead with the EV5 and EV9 signals deliberate positioning against both legacy combustion competitors and EV-native rivals active in Australia.
Director François Rousselet led the creative execution of 'Shhh… It's zombie proof.' for Kia Australia, working through production company Division alongside agency Innocean Australia. The campaign won the Ciclope Asia Pacific 2025 award in the Brand Content, VFX category and was a finalist in the Brand Content, Direction category for films between 61 and 120 seconds, according to the Ciclope Asia Pacific festival records.
Creative Directors Nick Cole and Pat Allenby at Innocean Australia worked directly with Rousselet during the development phase, and the alignment between pre-production and final execution was notably precise. As reported by clapboard.com, Cole and Allenby stated: "What he boarded ended up being exactly what we saw on set, just heaps bigger." That fidelity between storyboard and screen is reflected in the film's production scale — more than 100 movement artists were choreographed as zombies across a suburban Australian setting, each character built with a specific local identity.
The zombie cast was not treated as generic horror shorthand. Cole and Allenby noted their appreciation for how Rousselet "wanted to give each zombie a distinctly Aussie personality," per clapboard.com. The characters included a fitspo zombie wearing Crocs and carrying a KeepCup, and dusty council worker zombies — specific cultural references that ground the fantasy scenario in recognisable Australian suburban life. The principal cast — Luke Arnold, known for portraying Michael Hutchence in the INXS biographical series, Tess Haubrich of Spiderhead, Chloe Zuel of Hamilton, and Jamie Durie — brought a level of local star recognition that reinforced the campaign's Australian-first intent, as documented by adnews.com.au. Production credits for visual effects are attributed to Division in Ciclope Asia Pacific festival materials.
No verified third-party performance data for 'Shhh… It's zombie proof.' — including reach figures, view counts, or sales attribution — is publicly available at the time of this analysis. Assessment of the campaign's effectiveness therefore draws on its structural properties, award recognition, and market context.
The campaign's award performance provides a meaningful independent signal. The film won the Ciclope Asia Pacific 2025 prize in the Brand Content, VFX category and reached the finalist stage in the Direction category, according to Ciclope Asia Pacific festival records. Ciclope is a specialist craft-focused festival, and recognition in the VFX category reflects the technical ambition of the production rather than commercial metrics alone.
Structurally, the campaign demonstrates strong alignment between product truth and creative device. The zombie scenario does not decorate the product message — it generates it. Each EV feature highlighted in the film, from quiet drivetrain operation to Smart Park Assist and Voice Command, emerges directly from the survival logic of the scenario, which reduces the perceptual gap between entertainment and information that undermines many automotive campaigns. Launched during the Australian Open, one of the highest-reach broadcast and streaming events on the Australian calendar, the campaign's media context supports meaningful exposure to a broad national audience at a moment of high viewer engagement. Clapboard rates 'Shhh… It's zombie proof.' 74 out of 100, recognising its craft quality and creative coherence while noting the absence of verifiable downstream performance data.
'Shhh… It's zombie proof.' is a 2025 film campaign by Innocean Australia for Kia Australia. It uses a zombie apocalypse scenario to demonstrate real features of the Kia EV range, including quiet electric operation and Smart Park Assist, positioning Kia EVs as capable of handling any situation an Australian driver might face.
François Rousselet directed the campaign for Kia Australia, working through production company Division. Rousselet's storyboards aligned closely with the final on-set execution, according to Creative Directors Nick Cole and Pat Allenby at Innocean Australia, who noted the finished film was exactly what was boarded, only significantly larger in scale.
The campaign features the Kia EV5 and EV9 models from Kia's all-electric range. Both vehicles are demonstrated through the zombie survival scenario, with product features including quiet electric drivetrains, Voice Command, Smart Park Assist, insulated tyres, and vehicle cooling systems highlighted within the film's narrative logic.
The campaign won the Ciclope Asia Pacific 2025 award in the Brand Content, VFX category and was a finalist in the Brand Content, Direction category for films between 61 and 120 seconds, according to Ciclope Asia Pacific festival records. The agency was Innocean Australia and the production company was Division.
The campaign launched in Australia in January 2025, timed to coincide with the Australian Open. The Australian Open is one of the country's highest-reach broadcast events, providing Kia Australia and Innocean Australia with a large national audience at a moment of concentrated viewer attention across both linear and streaming platforms.
Kia Australia delivered 82,105 vehicles in 2025, representing approximately 6.8 percent of the national new-vehicle market and ranking fourth overall, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries. The brand recorded 0.4 percent year-on-year growth in a market that exceeded 1.2 million total deliveries, per Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries data.
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