Inspiring success: How Kia created a bold new brand

When automobile manufacturer Kia rebranded in 2021, it needed to bring its employees along for the ride. The team wanted an easy way for everyone to connect with and contribute to the new brand. Frontify’s platform provided easy access to brand assets, guidelines, and information, helping everyone to work with the brand — not just experience it.

Kia uses Frontify since 2021

Brand Guidelines

Digital Asset Management

Creative Collaboration

Digital & Print Templates

A starting-point dilemma

In early 2021, Kia transformed its corporate identity and reinvented the core of its brand strategy to put its customers at the center. The South Korean automobile manufacturer had experienced steady brand growth in Europe over the last ten years, so rebranding was a giant undertaking.

In the midst of this transformation, the Kia Europe team was actively seeking different ways of working and interacting with the brand. They wanted to make it easier to educate users and share the new brand guidelines, values, and principles across the organization and the outside world.

But a new way of working required a whole mindset shift. The Kia team needed to think more openly and find a platform that enabled them to collaborate effectively, and for internal and external audiences to interact with the brand.

“When you make such a dramatic change, your first priority has to be your internal audience and making sure everyone comes along with you.”

Rishaad Sacoor

Head of Brand Strategy Europe

An inspired solution

Frontify gave Kia new, efficient ways to deploy brand information seamlessly within the organization. It facilitated cross-team collaboration around brand projects both internally and externally, and helped everyone understand how the brand was evolving.

Additionally, Frontify gave all employees access to brand materials, allowing everyone to play an active part in building it, be it for larger marketing campaigns, multi-team projects, or onboarding new stakeholders. This has increased the team’s sense of ownership over the brand and buy-in to its new direction.

“Our vision with Frontify is to use it as the main touchpoint between the different teams.”

Evelin Mosberger

Assistant Manager Brand Strategy

The Frontify DAM helps the European team at Kia move fast and deploy brand assets seamlessly and quickly with all brand elements in one place rather than having the guidelines and assets scattered across multiple tools and folder structures.

For Kia’s team, using Frontify was not just about building a platform that facilitated brand management and information exchange — it was about increasing the team’s connection to the brand.

A road-worthy result

The Kia Europe team partnered with design agency made in to develop different ways of working and connecting with the brand. Frontify’s brand platform has helped them:

Increase ownership of the brand: All employees can easily access the relevant tools, guidelines, and assets to help actively shape the brand.
Inspire creative teams: The rebrand and the Frontify platform have captured people’s imagination internally and given them a collaborative space to interact with brand assets.
Improve audience connection: Frontify’s platform helped Kia explore fresh ideas for how internal and external audiences interact with the brand.
Identify opportunities for connection: Instead of working in creative silos, Frontify has become the main touchpoint between Kia’s teams.