The Brief

KIA was launching the new Sportage, and ECHO agency had dreamt up an epic activation, which showed off the SUV’s lovable features and it’s long-haul capabilities. Introducing “The World’s Longest Test Drive” – an ambitious stunt which would see a convoy of these rugged little vehicles traversing six South African provinces, over 7-days, in a non-stop relay.

The drivers would all be South African KIA enthusiasts, each completing a 10-50km leg of The World’s Longest Test Drive. A whopping 30,000 people entered online, in the hopes of getting behind the wheel, and being part of the official ‘Recordsetter USA’ attempt. The client was expecting around 5000 entires. It soon became evident that this was bigger than just a marketing campaign. This world record attempt would connect South Africans, and be a showcase of the wonderful country we live in – both geographically and culturally.

Mobile Media Mob was asked to come on board, as the Visual Content Production experts. We had to capture Video and Photo content of the entire journey, and edit & publish the content in real-time – a specialised service we’ve become known for. Our content wouldn’t only be used by Kia South Africa on TV, Print, PR and Social; it would be syndicated to motoring journalists, Expresso TV Show, plus regional and national media outlets.

The MMMob Approach

The 3000km course was set. The test drive would start in Durban and end in Cape Town. Two months before kick-off, a team comprising of ECHO agency and KIA brand reps, completed the entire route on a multi-day recce. The mission: to determine the individual travel distances, consider the locations of KIA dealerships along the way, road conditions, local attractions and logistics around petrol, food and accommodation. The research was all aggregated into a detailed Route Map and Activation Itinerary.

Map in hand, the MMMob could get started on enlisting a team. The Onsite Production force was made up of nine people, who would go along for the ride – a Project Producer, Creative Director, Chief Video Editor, two Influencer Photographers, a Lead Photographer, two Lead Videographers and an Audio Techie, who tripled up as a Drone Pilot and DIT. They would be supported by a four-person Online Team, managing the Post-Production output and distribution. The remote team consisted of an Executive Producer, Operations Manager and two Photo Editors.

Before the fleet of 12 Sportages started their engines, MMM had to ensure we were kitted out with the tech we needed for the open road. All the cars were fitted with GoPros, both outside and inside. Mobile Data Booster kits were dispersed across the procession to keep us connected, and transmitting imagery to the online portal, every two hours.

It was time to get the show on the road. MMM was there every leg of the way, with our Photo & Video teams moving between the various Sportages in the convoy, and the rest of the team trailing along in the support crew vehicles. The MMMob also enlisted two influencers, with topnotch Photography skills, to join the journey. They shared images across their channels along the way, and in addition, their pics were also added to our growing Image Bank.

Durban, Emrelo, Pretoria, Joburg, Bloem. A record-pursuing troop journeyed from one KIA dealership to the next. MMM’s Photographers were shooting images, making their top selects in-camera, and then directly uploading these to our Online Edit Portal, where the two Joburg-based Photo Editors could apply their Post-Prod touches, before the finalised images were shared with KIA’s Digital Team, and all the media outlets.

With way bigger files, video couldn’t be transmitted as easily. The onsite DIT did regular, scheduled sweeps of all the GoPros, and synced this with handovers of SD Cards with footage from the Videographers, to ensure chronological cataloguing of Video content.

Our Video Editor (a veteran of extreme RedBull projects), was setup in the rear of the “MMM Thundervan”, a KIA Sedona we’d kitted out as a mobile Post-Production facility. He spent the entire seven days editing video, in a darkened area in the rear of the vehicle while traveling at 120mkm/hr! Video content was streamed to MMM’s Online Portal, at lunch stops, and at each evening base camp, ensuring KIA had a constant supply of video content for their channels, and TV shows like Expresso. With this rolling Post-Prod system in place, MMM were able to meet KIA’s brief to instantaneously share moments of the incredible journey with their followers.

Bloem, East London, George, Hemanus, Cape Point. We did it! KIA had set the World Record for the longest ever Test-Drive, totalling 3291 km! And MMM had captured every inch of it.