Hyundai Reviews Ad Account As It Seeks Big Image Upgrade

The WSJ reported that Hyundai Motor, powered by surging U.S. sales, now wants to make a "quantum leap" from its image as that cheap South Korean car company to that car company that sells great cars for cheap prices. Hyundai is reviewing its 16-year relationship with ad agency Bates USA West, an Irvine, Calif., unit of the United Kingdom's Cordiant Communications Group. Executives are busy auditioning firms for the $160 million in annual billings. Hyundai wants to travel the road to success taken by Japan's Toyota Motor and Honda Motor. "We don't have to catch them in volume, but we do want to catch them in brand strength," says Finbarr O'Neill, Hyundai's U.S. president and chief executive officer, who has been with the company since 1985.