Hyundai Motor France is demonstrating resilience in a declining French new car market, achieving 0.4% growth and a 0.2 percentage point increase in market share to 2.8% in 2025, despite overall market contraction of 5% with 1.6 million registrations, according to comments made by the company’s marketing and communications director.
Clémentine Antunes, director of marketing and communication at Hyundai Motor France, attributes the company’s success to a shift towards digital and social media investment, driven by improved return on investment (ROI) in video advertising. Traditional television advertising, she stated, is becoming less attractive due to rising prices and limitations in targeting.
“Our purchases in programmatic IPTV, direct deals, or on YouTube allow us to obtain more satisfactory ROIs, particularly on generated sales,” Antunes explained. The key to this improved performance lies in the superior targeting capabilities of these digital channels, allowing Hyundai to reach potential buyers based on geographic location – aligning with dealership locations – and demographic profiles, specifically those in urban areas who are more receptive to technology and environmental concerns.
Hyundai’s data-driven approach is central to this strategy. The company leverages data to identify successful targeting parameters and then replicates those patterns in future video campaigns. Antunes emphasized that all marketing activities, including sporting partnerships like those in running events, are meticulously measured, tracking reach, lead generation (test drive requests and commercial offers), and sales.
Addressing the complexities of the automotive retail model, Antunes acknowledged the challenge of gathering data from independent dealerships. Hyundai has implemented a system, developed in collaboration with CSA Data Consulting (part of Havas), to provide dealerships with monthly reports detailing which marketing levers contribute most to sales conversions. This system combines deterministic and probabilistic approaches to data analysis.
The company’s commitment to measurement extends beyond traditional marketing metrics. Antunes highlighted the importance of understanding how Hyundai is perceived in the evolving landscape of Generative AI (GEO) and Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Gemini. She believes that the work already done in building brand reputation and engaging with opinion leaders and online communities will be crucial in shaping the narratives generated by these AI systems.
“A media agency recently told me that entering the GEO era is a fresh start. I think it’s more of a judge of peace, which will allow us to evaluate all the previous work we have done with opinion leaders and communities,” Antunes said. “All the content produced on the brand and our models, the articles published by specialized journalists, the opinions of content creators, forums or comparators… That’s what will influence the results of LLMs, and we need to value all this work now.”
Hyundai’s global XCIENT Fuel Cell truck fleet has surpassed 20 million kilometers driven across Europe, with 165 units operating in Switzerland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Austria, as of February 5, 2026. The fleet, launched in Switzerland in October 2020, reached 10 million kilometers in that country by June 2024. In North America, 63 XCIENT Fuel Cell trucks have collectively exceeded 1.6 million kilometers since their introduction in 2023, including deployments at the Ports of Oakland and Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in Georgia. Hyundai launched an upgraded version of the XCIENT Fuel Cell truck in 2025, featuring an upgraded hydrogen fuel cell system.
Antunes stated that a key challenge for Hyundai is differentiating its brand in a rapidly changing automotive industry, emphasizing its Korean heritage, 80 years of history, commitment to electric vehicles, and involvement in sports like running. She likewise underscored the need to demonstrate the financial contribution of marketing investments to the company’s leadership.