Getting a driver’s license is a rite of passage for teenagers—or at least it used to be. The percentage of teens who drive has been steadily declining, as alternatives such as Uber, Lyft and even scooters grow in popularity. Only about a quarter of 16-year-olds had a license in 2022, down from half of the age group in 1983, according to the latest Department of Transportation statistics recently cited by USA Today, while the percentage of 18-year-olds with licenses declined from 80% to 60%.

This is not great news for auto brands—and one of them is addressing the issue head-on with new marketing. Hyundai recently debuted a social media campaign in which actress Julie Bowen addresses the causes of teen driving apprehension along with two of her sons.

“You are going to go on a date in a scooter?” she asks one of them, questioning his choice of alternate transportation.

In another video, she plugs safety features in the Hyundai Tucson depicted as especially helpful for teens.

The effort from Hyundai agency Innocean USA is running across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. 

Sean Gilpin, Hyundai Motor America’s chief marketing officer, said that while the automaker continues to see “young people be excited about driving cars,” there is “still a subset of that group that has anxieties and concerns, and that’s kind of the intent here—getting parents and teens to be aware of all the safety features to eliminate some of those.”

The campaign, which debuted in late October and will continue running throughout November, is among the first marketing efforts under Gilpin since he took the CMO role in late August. His promotion came after the departure of Angelea Zepeda, who joined X as global head of marketing. She had earlier seen her Hyundai role narrowed from CMO to chief creative officer, with Gilpin taking the the title of VP for marketing performance, in addition to his role as VP of global sales marketing. Now, Hyundai has once again united performance and creative duties, under Gilpin’s leadership. He also retains the global role.

Ad Age recently caught up with Gilpin to learn more about his marketing priorities and how he will approach the new job. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What is at the top of your to-do list as CMO?

I think our creative has been fantastic. But what we really want to continue to do is be more comprehensive in how we approach the overall customer engagement—walk the talk a little bit in terms of really delivering an end-to-end customer experience, using a lot more data and understand pain points, whether it’s through the shopping process, ownership process, and really being kind of a full 360 in regards to customer engagement.

It’s a tougher market. As we head into next year, I think we’re all feeling how competitive it is, and in that regard, it just makes us that much more focused and sharpening our pencils on where to put our next dollar. And being more data-driven in that investment management and accountability of the marketing spend is really critical. 

Hyundai has plans to sell vehicles on Amazon, but Automotive News recently reported about frustration from dealers about lack of progress in the initiative. How real is the Amazon program and what can we look for in the next few months?

I think it’s very real. With any project that is as innovative as this topic, there’s going to be some angst on when it’s coming, and are we there yet? But what I would say is that all parties involved—the dealers, Hyundai and Amazon—are very careful to make sure that when we go live with a broader public audience, that it works well for dealers and customers. We’ve transacted a lot of vehicles through Amazon employees. There were quite a few learnings, and there were some optimizations that are being made but you can expect a broader rollout later this year. 

When it is live, will you support it with a big marketing campaign?

The intention is to maximize the value of this program. Amazon has a very large user base, and awareness of the program is going to be critical.

There is an ongoing debate on how brands should balance performance marketing with more upper-funnel brand marketing. What is your view on this? Does Hyundai plan to shift where it spends its money?

The goal is to just make sure that decisions regarding investment priorities are founded in data that gives confidence that the investments are going to be accountable to performance. And that doesn’t mean it’s a separation of church and state between creativity and advertising and/or performance.

We are not where we want to be in terms of our brand’s opinion, we think our products and our brand have room to be recognized for how good they are currently, and that’s going to be a continued focus for us. So I think it’s important to note that we have a very balanced marketing plan moving forward.

Any plans to advertise in the Super Bowl—or is Hyundai sticking with its recent strategy of advertising during the AFC and NFC championship games?

We are in the championship games this upcoming year. But it’s not to say that the Super Bowl is something that we wouldn’t consider. A lot of it is just influenced by do we have the right campaign timing.

To me, Super Bowl is a great launch vehicle [to advertise new models], as long as I can sustain that message after the fact. And based on campaign timings, we wouldn’t rule it out in the future.

But you’re not doing it this season?

We’re not doing it.

What is your favorite Hyundai to drive?

Palisade. I’ve got a nine- and an eight-year-old at home. It’s function[al], and yet it’s luxurious enough to where, when I take my wife out for dinner on those rare occasions, I feel good pulling up in the valet.