Hyundai to Mini: We'll Play With You!

I love viral marketing.  It's way more amusing than real marketing. Whereas real marketing is a multi-billion dollar industry that bets on the fact the average consumer is dumber than the average advertising department, viral marketing is a bit more grass-roots, personal, and often times humorous.  I mean, who can forget the whole Audi vs. BMW billboard battle?  Or Bob Lutz's "The CTS-V will smoke anything on a racetrack!" challenge?

The latest brand to cash in on this less-professional advertising tactic is BMW's Mini division.  As you may have heard, Mini challenged Porsche to a race-track duel at Road Atlanta in June.  Porsche, in their typical snobby way (hey, with a history like Porsche you're allowed to be snobby) said no.  Mini responded by making a Rocky-esque video to poke fun.  And while it would've been amusing to see the Mini Cooper S torn to shreds on a race track by a 385-bhp 911 Carrera S, it's not surprising that Porsche declined.  You know - reputation to uphold, legal department throwing a conniption fit, they were going to rearrange their closet by color and season that day, etcetera.

But it looks like Mini isn't the only brand looking for a fight.  If any maker is more deserving of the title "underdog" than the plucky Brit (errr... GerBrit?), it's Hyundai.  They've got a chip on their shoulder (that's named "Excel," probably) and something to prove.  They're sending a message to Mini that if they want a race, they've got one.

What do they want to bring to the track?  No, not an Elantra Touring - a Genesis Coupe.  We've reviewed the Genesis Coupe here at CarThrottle before, and came away quite impressed - and we're not the only ones.  Witness the multiple magazine comparo victories against industry standards like the Mustang GT, Camaro, and Challenger.  The V6-powered Genesis Coupe is a scrappy little streetfighter that punches above it's weight.

You can see Hyundai's responses to the whole situation in the video below, and it's pretty ballsy.  Basically, they say "Porsche doesn't want to play, but it's ok, we'll step in for them."

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaiB_sHv7Ac

Especially amusing is the fact that Hyundai suggests a July date, since their race driver Rhys Millen will be campaigning the bespoke RMR Genesis PM580 racer at the Pike's Peak hill climb on the original date.  Which they phrase as "Our driver's a bit busy this week preparing to set the world record at Pike's Peak... but July is looking good."

Either way, viral marketing is fun, and a race between a Cooper S and a Genesis Coupe 3.8 would be an interesting one to see on a race track like Road Atlanta - with it's compound curves and long straight-away, it could be an interesting battle between grunt and grip.  Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope this actually happens!