The Age of Attitude: How INSTER Challenged the Default for Influencer Marketing

Youth has long been treated as the default setting in advertising and it’s no different in the automotive category. But when we launched the Hyundai INSTER, a compact, fully electric car with a serious personality, we saw an opportunity to challenge that. Why not celebrate experience, style and individuality instead? Enter Ginger and Carman: two fashion-loving women in their 60s who have found recent fame on TikTok. They’re unapologetically themselves, and it turns out the internet can’t get enough of that.

At a time when the industry is obsessed with chasing youth, we leaned into something far more powerful: attitude. Ginger and Carman aren’t influential because of their age; they’re influential in spite of how the world typically views age. That was the whole point. In launching a city EV with a big spirit, we wanted to challenge the expectations of what an automotive influencer campaign could look like and who it could speak to.

The result was a campaign that broke the mould. With Ginger and Carman at the centre, we created a suite of vibrant, social-first videos designed specifically for them in a way that matched the electric energy of the car itself:

​A hero launch film introduced their personalities and the INSTER’s punchy personality.

An editorial-style fashion video, where they talked candidly about their philosophy on clothes, confidence, and creativity.

A walkaround piece where they explored the car’s features through their eyes, not a spec sheet.

And a cheeky 'on the street' segment where they asked passersby, “Does size matter?”, only to reveal they were talking about the car all along.

This wasn’t just content. It was commentary. By putting Ginger and Carman front and centre, we celebrated age positivity in a way that felt fresh and unforced. In a culture that often treats older generations as invisible, or worse, irrelevant, we gave them the mic. And they ran with it.

We also celebrated individuality. Ginger and Carman don’t dress to blend in. They wear what brings them joy, and they wear it loudly. That ethos aligned perfectly with the INSTER’s design, compact, electric, and confidently different. Even better, they’re passionate advocates for sustainable style, often shopping second-hand or reworking old pieces into new looks. It meant we weren’t just aligning with a fashion aesthetic, we were aligning with values.

It resonated not because we targeted a niche, but because we spoke to a feeling that crosses generations: the desire to be seen for who you really are. In a sea of sameness, that cut through.

Comments rolled in:

“I want to replay this 500x over.”

“Is this my favourite car ad ever? I think it might be.”

“Never felt so seen by a car company.”

So what can marketers learn from this?

First: Think attitude instead of demographics. Ginger and Carman proved that influence isn’t tied to a birth year. They’ve tapped into an audience hungry for something real, and they’ve done it without ever pretending to be anything other than themselves.

Second: Content across formats wins. By working with them to create a full suite of assets, from fashion shorts to feature walkarounds to bite-sized edits, we gave our media team a library of creative to test, learn from and optimise. That’s how modern campaigns should operate: not one polished 60-second ad, but a living, breathing collection of stories.

And finally: Bold beats safe. Especially in a category like automotive, where conventions run deep, boldness is currency. Playing it safe might avoid risk, but it also avoids attention. This campaign proved that audiences respond when you take the risk to surprise them.

'Small car, big energy' wasn’t just a line. It was a belief that size doesn’t define power, personality does. That’s true for cars. And it’s true for the people we choose to represent them.

For Hyundai, this wasn’t just about a campaign, it was a brand decision. A decision to back individuality, back underrepresented voices and back content that doesn’t look like everyone else’s. In doing so, we didn’t just launch a car, we grew cultural relevance at the same time.