Hyundai’s Spotlight turns up the volume on its lifestyle brand ambitions

Ask Hyundai’s whole-time director and COO, Tarun Garg, if Spotlight is the company’s attempt to slip out of its carmaker overalls and into something more stylish. A lifestyle brand, if you will. “Absolutely,” he beams, after having revealed at a press conference that his consumers “are getting younger and aspirational”.

Started in 2021, Spotlight is a collaboration between the South Korean carmaker and Universal Music Group, wherein the former provides a platform for India’s young musical talent to showcase their prowess by collaborating with established stars. Artistes like Javed Ali, Aditya Rikhari, Gajendra Verma, DIGV, Wazir Patar, and Ravator, among others, are part of Spotlight season three.

The first two seasons featured 12 original songs and have collectively amassed over 150 million YouTube views. There is Hyundai Spotlight Concerts as well which started in 2023. The carmaker held 10 concerts with Spotlight artistes across India last year for its car owners and plans to top that figure this year. As per its website, the next concerts will take place at Jaipur and Hyderabad.

Another famous brand that has such an intellectual property is Coca-Cola with Coke Studio (called Coke Studio Bharat in India). 

Usually, such a post-purchase treat, at least in automobiles, is expected from high-end luxury brands. “Hyundai is an aspirational brand in India, and aspiration has now taken over functionality when people are buying a car,” states Garg.

He illustrates his statement with figures: “More than 25% of the cars have connectivity, more than 25% of the cars are automatic, and more than 68% of my cars are SUVs now; Creta was the number one selling car in March across India.”

SUVs are in demand because “customers want to travel long distances, and the highways are now becoming very popular routes.” He nods to Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in Hyundai’s SUVs, which he deems a comfort, because on many highways, the cars touch 120 km/hr.

Hyundai, which went public in 2024, competes primarily with Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors for supremacy in the Indian auto market. In Q3FY25, it posted a revenue of Rs 16,648 crore.

As the country becomes more aspirational, Hyundai sees music as a medium to bring together young aspiring customers.

And it turns out the carmaker depends on its workshops and service centres to market the Spotlight concerts to its car owners. “They (workshops) are directly communicating with the customers, ‘Please come to the concert with your family.’”

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Talk about measurement and he quips, “number of customers coming in,” and mentions brand score too. However, there’s no pressure to gain any referrals at all. “I don't think we look at short-term KPIs. The whole idea is to really make the customers happy, to really make them feel proud of being associated with Hyundai,” states Garg.

What the brand does is make videos of the concert with its customers in them and post them on social media.