How KIA Give It Everything Turned Blue-Collar Pride Into a Super Bowl Statement
Kia's Give It Everything campaign is a 2019 United States automotive brand platform created by David and Goliath that launched with a 90-second Super Bowl spot on February 3, 2019, celebrating the working people of West Point, Georgia, as the human face behind the 2020 Kia Telluride, rejecting celebrity endorsement in favour of manufacturing pride.
The campaign marks a deliberate repositioning of Kia in the United States market, shifting the brand's identity away from price-led messaging toward themes of quality, craftsmanship, and the effort of ordinary people who exceed expectations. As noted by kiamedia.com, the creative centres on West Point, Georgia, the community directly associated with Kia's American manufacturing plant, grounding the Telluride launch in a sense of place and human consequence rather than aspirational abstraction. David Angelo, founder and chairman of David and Goliath, stated the campaign's intent plainly, as reported by prnewswire.com: rather than simply launch a Super Bowl spot, the agency wanted to create a movement.
Give It Everything operates as a 360-degree platform across the United States, encompassing television, print, digital, social, outdoor, digital banners, and pre-roll video, according to kiamedia.com. A 30-second preview aired during the NFC Championship Game on January 20, 2019, per prnewswire.com, building anticipation ahead of the full Super Bowl reveal. The sustain phase that followed included 30-second and 15-second cutdowns alongside feature-led advertising specific to the Telluride, extending the campaign's reach well beyond the Super Bowl window. The single media asset documented for this campaign on Clapboard is the 90-second film, which functions as both the creative centrepiece and the strategic declaration of intent for the entire platform. Clapboard rates Give It Everything a 63 out of 100, reflecting a campaign with clear strategic ambition and cultural sincerity that stops short of full creative distinctiveness.
Kia enters its 2019 United States Super Bowl campaign at a moment of significant competitive pressure in the automotive industry. The brand and its parent group faced headwinds across global markets: Hyundai and Kia combined sold 7.19 million vehicles globally in 2019, down from the prior year and below their 7.6 million-unit target, according to Securities Miraeasset. In the United States specifically, the mid-size SUV segment where the 2020 Telluride competes is among the most contested categories in the automotive industry, with established rivals including Toyota and Ford holding substantial brand equity built over decades.
The strategic logic behind Give It Everything is rooted in a specific consumer insight: that a growing segment of American buyers, particularly in the markets where Kia is building share, responds to authenticity and provenance rather than performance theatre or celebrity association. By anchoring the campaign in West Point, Georgia, and foregrounding the workers Kia refers to as the Great Unknowns, David and Goliath repositions the Telluride not merely as a vehicle but as a product of American labour, per adsoftheworld.com. This move carries particular resonance at a cultural moment when domestic manufacturing narratives hold strong appeal across the United States.
The decision to invest in a 90-second Super Bowl format, rather than the standard 30-second unit, signals the scale of Kia's commitment to this repositioning in the United States market. According to mediapost.com, the campaign was recognised within the automotive industry as a genuine brand-building effort rather than a purely product-driven launch. Against competitors who favour spectacle and humour in Super Bowl advertising, Kia and David and Goliath chose emotional sincerity, a differentiating stance in one of advertising's most cluttered environments.
Director John Hillcoat leads the creative execution of Give It Everything, bringing a cinematic sensibility shaped by his work in feature film to the 90-second Super Bowl spot for Kia. Hillcoat, working through production company Serial Pictures, applies a restrained, observational aesthetic to the West Point, Georgia, footage, according to clapboard.com. The approach is closer to documentary portraiture than conventional automotive advertising, favouring weathered faces, working hands, and the texture of an industrial community over the polished choreography that dominates the automotive industry's Super Bowl output.
The film introduces a cast of real workers and residents associated with Kia's manufacturing operations in West Point, Georgia, presenting them under the banner of the Great Unknowns, as documented by adsoftheworld.com. This framing inverts the standard logic of celebrity-driven automotive advertising, proposing that the people who build the vehicle are as worthy of the spotlight as any famous face. The cinematography and editing reflect this philosophy: shots are held longer than commercial convention typically allows, and the emotional register is earned through accumulation rather than manipulation.
David and Goliath, Kia's agency of record in the United States, structures the broader campaign execution to support and extend this central film. The sustain phase cutdowns and Telluride-specific feature advertising maintain the visual language and tonal consistency established in the Super Bowl spot, per kiamedia.com, ensuring that audiences encountering the campaign across television, digital, outdoor, and print channels experience a coherent brand world rather than a fragmented media buy. The craft commitment visible in the 90-second film is the creative foundation that gives the wider campaign platform its credibility.
No verified performance data for the Give It Everything campaign is publicly available in terms of sales attribution, brand lift metrics, or documented media reach figures. What exists in the public record is critical and industry reception that allows for structural assessment of the campaign's effectiveness as an advertising investment in the United States.
Forbes critic Eric Adams assigned the commercial a B-minus rating on February 4, 2019, as reported by Forbes. Adams praised the spot for highlighting what he described as the hardscrabble Georgia town where the Telluride was built, acknowledging the authenticity of the approach. He criticised the execution, however, as overly familiar in its emotional grammar, suggesting the campaign's sincerity did not fully translate into creative distinctiveness, per dutchesskia.com.
This critical reading aligns with Clapboard's own assessment. The campaign earns its 63 out of 100 Clapboard Score by demonstrating genuine strategic coherence: the insight is real, the creative idea is earned rather than manufactured, and the production quality is measurably higher than average for the category. What limits the score is the degree to which the emotional arc of the film, workers, pride, community, remains within a familiar mode that the automotive industry and adjacent categories have explored before. Give It Everything is a campaign that knows what it wants to say and says it with conviction. It falls short of the creative surprise that would make it genuinely memorable beyond the Super Bowl news cycle in the United States market.
Kia's Give It Everything campaign celebrates the workers of West Point, Georgia, where the 2020 Kia Telluride is manufactured. Created by David and Goliath, it launched with a 90-second Super Bowl spot on February 3, 2019, positioning the Telluride through manufacturing pride rather than celebrity endorsement, as documented by kiamedia.com and prnewswire.com.
David and Goliath created the Give It Everything campaign for Kia in 2019. The Los Angeles-based agency serves as Kia's agency of record in the United States. David Angelo, the agency's founder and chairman, described the goal as creating a movement rather than simply launching a Super Bowl spot, per prnewswire.com.
John Hillcoat directed the 90-second Give It Everything Super Bowl film for Kia. Hillcoat, known for his feature film work, brought a documentary-inflected visual style to the production through Serial Pictures, focusing on the real workers and residents of West Point, Georgia, rather than conventional automotive advertising aesthetics, according to clapboard.com.
A 30-second preview of Give It Everything first aired during the NFC Championship Game on January 20, 2019, per prnewswire.com. The full 90-second campaign film launched during the Super Bowl on February 3, 2019. A sustain phase of shorter cutdowns and Telluride-focused advertising followed throughout the United States market afterward.
Kia's Give It Everything campaign receives a Clapboard Score of 63 out of 100. The score reflects strong strategic coherence and high production craft led by director John Hillcoat, offset by a creative emotional arc that remains within familiar territory the automotive industry has explored before, limiting its overall distinction.
Forbes critic Eric Adams gave the Give It Everything commercial a B-minus rating on February 4, 2019, as reported by Forbes. He praised its focus on West Point, Georgia, and the authentic community portraiture, but criticised the execution as emotionally familiar, a view consistent with Clapboard's own assessment of the campaign's structural strengths and limitations.
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