Kia sold the Picanto by parking it inside El Salvador's commuter buses

Kia El Salvador was in trouble: sales slid from third to sixth in industry share, December 2021 finished below pre-pandemic levels, and the brand sold less than half its monthly average in early 2022 while a competitor grew 20%.

Ogilvy El Salvador's insight: 90% of Salvadorans ride buses, where vendors sell everything; bus users spend about US$140 a month on transport — close to the Picanto's US$144 minimum monthly payment, yet they assumed a car was out of reach.

The agency cut the back of a real bus, ramped a Picanto inside and toured the 101 route for 30 days, with a salesperson comparing the fare budget against the payment plan on a tablet. One showroom reached 40,000 people a day across 42 stations.

Kia regained third place in market share in the first month and second the next; the Picanto became the top-selling car in its category at 25% of industry sales, and 100% of the three-month inventory sold. The US$2 million in earned media dwarfed a paid budget under US$500,000.

Bring the car to the bus; match fare to payment

Meeting buyers on the bus removes the intimidation of a showroom and the belief gap at once.

The fare-versus-payment comparison turns an abstract price into arithmetic riders already understand.

One vehicle with no media buy reached 40,000 people a day on the country's busiest route.

When the barrier is belief, not price, show the arithmetic where the buyer already stands: put the product inside their daily commute and compare the payment plan with what they already spend.

The case won Effie's Global Best of the Best in the Small Budgets category, and Kia studied replicating the bus showroom in other markets. The activation ran from February to October 2022 in El Salvador.