Hankook Tire continues successful TV brand campaign: Spectacular 3D winter adventure starring UHP tire Icebear W300 taming the winter-road

• “Tame the Road”: Sequel of spectacular marketing campaign for European winter markets
• Fast-paced commercial captivates viewers with extraordinary tyre perspectives
• New winter clip impressively communicates Hankook's slogan “Driving Emotion”

Neu-Isenburg Germany, October 9th, 2008 – The hero, driving a silver sports coupé is involved in a spectacular and furious car chase in the urban streets of a virtual future city. In summer he was taming the concrete streets with the new UHP tyre Hankook Ventus V12 evo. Now, he easily handles the snowy and icy streets. The black limousines pursuiting him are superior in number, but our hero is perfectly equipped for the challenge:

With the ultra-high-performance tyre Hankook Icebear W300 he tames the winter streets – and the hero has the last laugh and escapes. The winter TV commercial is continuing the global TV marketing campaign “Tame the Road” by Hankook Tire, currently the seventh largest and one of the fastest growing tyre manufacturers in the world . The new TV commercial is currently being rolled out in Germany and Hungary.

Like the summer spot the new Hankook winter clip stands out with its revolutionary 3D animation, offering TV audiences an exceptional and “never-seen-before” action-packed perspective in a tyre commercial. The winter UHP tyre Hankook Icebear W300 takes centre stage in the story, whose impressive appearance can be experienced close-up by viewers. The effects created by award-winning creative studio Shilo TV captivate viewers while giving them goose bumps.

With its avant-garde creative approach, Hankook Tire brings forward excitement, ease and pleasure in its global brand campaign for 2008 countering the conventional stereotypical messages usually delivered in tyre commercials. The superiority of Hankook Tire's products regarding active safety at sportive and dynamic driving, cornering power, sudden braking and rapid acceleration with excellent traction capabilities is well demonstrated in the exceptional campaign.

The current winter TV spot emphasises the Icebear W300's great performance and high safety under severe, winter-conditions and even on icy roads. These qualities of the Icebear W300 have been reflected for years by top results in comparison tests initiated by renowned independent automotive magazines. The results show that the Icebear W300 is not only a star in an entertaining TV episode, but also owns various recommendations from independent sources.

“The new Hankook winter clip illustrates our philosophy, combining quality, performance, safety and lifestyle, in short - driving emotion, in an impressive and concise manner,” said Seung-Do Jin, Executive Vice-President of Hankook Tire and COO for the European market. “The innovative and dynamic commercial strengthens the perception of Hankook Tire as one of the leading global tyre brands.

Furthermore it conveys Hankook Tire as the right tyre brand for tuning and auto racing fans as well as automobile enthusiasts. I am convinced that our new winter TV spot as sequel and part of our global campaign “Tame the Road” will be highly appealing to the audience – equally to automotive enthusiasts and aficionados of expensive animation productions.” The new TV commercial is currently being aired in Germany and from October 13th in Hungary where the company's latest state of the art production plant is located to supply the European market.

The latest animated commercial is the sequel of the successful global campaign “Tame the Road”, whose launch last year with TV commercials and print advertisements enjoyed raving success in winning over the audience. The new clip is set to run during high-class sport events and in TV sport programmes, for instance related to football or motorsports. The commercial was produced by US-based animation studio Shilo TV.

Shilo TV is a creative collective of designers, animators and directors who share a common passion in forging new perspectives in dynamic storytelling, innovative animation using the most modern visual effects. Shilo TV won the American Emmy?c award in 2005. About Hankook Icebear W300 Hankook's Icebear W300 is an asymmetric UHP winter tyre which is available in 77 different sizes for vehicles from the high powered midsized compact class (e.g. VW Golf) up to luxury sedans (e.g. Mercedes S-Class), sports cars and strong SUVs (e.g. BMW X5).

The thermo-elastic silica tread compound in conjunction with the optimised sipe structure of the asymmetric tread provides top grip and safe driving under all winter road conditions. Due to its computer-optimised tread design, the Icebear W300 delivers maximum traction and excellent braking especially under wet road conditions as well as low rolling tread noise. Its comprehensive line-up extends from the standard size 195/65 R15 up to exclusive 295/30 R22 with speed indices from H to W. All Icebear W300s carry the snowflake-symbol on their sidewall. Hankook's Icebear W300 is also available with Hankook's runflat-technology (HRS = Hankook Runflat-System).