2025 Winner
BronzeBest in Automotive
Hyundai
"Bid to Inventory"
Innocean
"Bid to Inventory"
Innocean
Entering 2025, Hyundai Canada faced a multi-layered challenge. Economic uncertainty weighed on consumer confidence, government EV incentives had been withdrawn, and dealer lots — once starved for supply — were now restocked but moving inventory at half the pace of the previous year.
Then came an even bigger disruption: an unexpected U.S.-Canada trade dispute with the auto sector at its centre. Tariffs threw OEM supply chains into disarray, with inventory unpredictably delayed, rerouted, or bulk-delivered without warning. For Hyundai, the stakes were high. Models could arrive in specific regions en masse with no time to replan media, while others might go out of stock mid-campaign.
Hyundai’s greatest media challenge was no longer just who to reach — it was what to promote, where, and when. Relevance and efficiency would come not from media plans locked in weeks prior, but from the ability to respond instantly to volatile vehicle availability.
The big idea: Turn Hyundai’s national inventory feed — historically used for dealer websites— into the real-time engine of its media strategy. In doing so, media could pivot as fast as supply changed, ensuring dollars flowed only to in-stock, ready-to-sell vehicles in each local market.
Executing this idea meant seamlessly connecting multiple complex systems: Hyundai’s real-time inventory feed, ad server, DSP, and centralized data warehouse. A custom integration enabled these platforms to “speak” to one another allowing media to flex dynamically in response to ground-level vehicle availability.
Hyundai then developed a proprietary algorithm that ingested daily inventory data, regional sales goals, and market demand signals to assign a performance score to every vehicle model. These scores directly informed bid strategy and spend allocation across paid search and programmatic channels — automatically boosting media for models that were available and deprioritizing those that were not.
Working across agency, media, and client teams required deep coordination. The system had to update daily without failure, integrate seamlessly into existing programmatic buying workflows, and provide reliable metrics to guide real-time decisions. They overcame hurdles in aligning disparate data sets and automating media logic previously managed manually — all while ensuring the tech stack remained responsive across hundreds of micro-markets.
This approach marked a first for Hyundai and a breakthrough in automotive media execution.
While dynamic media optimization exists, Hyundai’s use of a live inventory feed as a direct decision-making input — combined with a bespoke scoring algorithm and real-time media reallocation — represented a new level of integration between retail operations and advertising.
Instead of optimizing after the fact, Hyundai's media became pre-emptively intelligent — predicting which vehicles to support based on inventory forecasts, then adjusting spend instantly as new shipments arrived.
This full-stack innovation wasn’t just tech for tech’s sake. It solved a real-world business problem with real-time precision — driving media decisions from the dealer lot up, not the ad plan down.
In a year where most OEMs struggled to stabilize performance, Hyundai surged ahead — proving that adaptive, inventory-aware media could deliver both efficiency and impact.
The campaign garnered 13% year-over-year sales growth, more than double the industry average of more than 6% with six consecutive months of record-breaking sales to start 2025. There was a 0.5 pt market share gain, rising from 7.1% to 7.6% in a flat market, and 90% of media spend was optimized to high-availability models, ensuring minimal waste and maximum alignment with dealer stock.
There was a 24% year-over-year increase in search volume for prioritized models, signaling stronger consumer traction. This momentum also translated into a 22% rise in lead volume, reflecting higher retail engagement and greater conversion potential.
This program didn't just deliver short-term performance — it established a new, scalable model for how Hyundai can use media to support its national dealer network with surgical precision going forward.
Then came an even bigger disruption: an unexpected U.S.-Canada trade dispute with the auto sector at its centre. Tariffs threw OEM supply chains into disarray, with inventory unpredictably delayed, rerouted, or bulk-delivered without warning. For Hyundai, the stakes were high. Models could arrive in specific regions en masse with no time to replan media, while others might go out of stock mid-campaign.
Hyundai’s greatest media challenge was no longer just who to reach — it was what to promote, where, and when. Relevance and efficiency would come not from media plans locked in weeks prior, but from the ability to respond instantly to volatile vehicle availability.
The big idea: Turn Hyundai’s national inventory feed — historically used for dealer websites— into the real-time engine of its media strategy. In doing so, media could pivot as fast as supply changed, ensuring dollars flowed only to in-stock, ready-to-sell vehicles in each local market.
Executing this idea meant seamlessly connecting multiple complex systems: Hyundai’s real-time inventory feed, ad server, DSP, and centralized data warehouse. A custom integration enabled these platforms to “speak” to one another allowing media to flex dynamically in response to ground-level vehicle availability.
Hyundai then developed a proprietary algorithm that ingested daily inventory data, regional sales goals, and market demand signals to assign a performance score to every vehicle model. These scores directly informed bid strategy and spend allocation across paid search and programmatic channels — automatically boosting media for models that were available and deprioritizing those that were not.
Working across agency, media, and client teams required deep coordination. The system had to update daily without failure, integrate seamlessly into existing programmatic buying workflows, and provide reliable metrics to guide real-time decisions. They overcame hurdles in aligning disparate data sets and automating media logic previously managed manually — all while ensuring the tech stack remained responsive across hundreds of micro-markets.
This approach marked a first for Hyundai and a breakthrough in automotive media execution.
While dynamic media optimization exists, Hyundai’s use of a live inventory feed as a direct decision-making input — combined with a bespoke scoring algorithm and real-time media reallocation — represented a new level of integration between retail operations and advertising.
Instead of optimizing after the fact, Hyundai's media became pre-emptively intelligent — predicting which vehicles to support based on inventory forecasts, then adjusting spend instantly as new shipments arrived.
This full-stack innovation wasn’t just tech for tech’s sake. It solved a real-world business problem with real-time precision — driving media decisions from the dealer lot up, not the ad plan down.
In a year where most OEMs struggled to stabilize performance, Hyundai surged ahead — proving that adaptive, inventory-aware media could deliver both efficiency and impact.
The campaign garnered 13% year-over-year sales growth, more than double the industry average of more than 6% with six consecutive months of record-breaking sales to start 2025. There was a 0.5 pt market share gain, rising from 7.1% to 7.6% in a flat market, and 90% of media spend was optimized to high-availability models, ensuring minimal waste and maximum alignment with dealer stock.
There was a 24% year-over-year increase in search volume for prioritized models, signaling stronger consumer traction. This momentum also translated into a 22% rise in lead volume, reflecting higher retail engagement and greater conversion potential.
This program didn't just deliver short-term performance — it established a new, scalable model for how Hyundai can use media to support its national dealer network with surgical precision going forward.
Credits
Hyundai Auto Canada Corp.:Christine Smith - Director, Marketing
Peter Assenza - National Manager, Marketing Communications
Adam Mintz - National Manager, Digital Experience & Customer Communications
INNOCEAN Canada:
Spiro Paravantes - SVP, Media Operations
Caroline Villarroel - VP, Digital Media
Kierani Kerr - Director, Data & Analytics
Sean Vardy - Associate Director, Programmatic
Francis Cadiz - Data Analyst
Mark Pileggi - VP, Client Services
Ian MacKellar - Executive Creative Director
Google Canada:
Juana Mahadik - Account Executive, Auto
David Carsley - Head of Industry, Auto
Mat Dubuc - Account Executive, Digital Transformation
Marcelo Llanos Kuncar - Analytical Lead Auto
Mark Oliver - Customer Solutions Engineer