Hyundai-CMO Laura Rathai on How to Grow Brand Value by 72 Percent in 5 Years

How do you turn a brand that used to stand for a good price into one people actually desire? Laura Rathai, Vice President Marketing at Hyundai Motor Europe, answers exactly that question in the new DMEXCO Podcast with Verena Gründel. 

For years, Hyundai's communication centered almost entirely on the car itself: features, price, equipment. Then the company made a conscious decision to talk more about itself as a brand: its origins, its culture, its purpose.  

In the podcast, Laura describes that shift like this: "Our brand is rooted in this belief, progress for humanity, human-centric innovation. We moved away from pure feature communication into making sure people understand what things actually mean for them."  

Alongside that shift, Hyundai built a large dedicated design team in Europe. The new Ioniq 3 was designed there from scratch. According to Laura, it's this consistency between design, purpose and marketing that has done the most to change how the brand is perceived. 

The podcast also covers the following topics: 

• How does brand perception differ across markets like Norway, Italy and France? 
• What role does Korean pop culture, from K-pop to K-beauty, play in how Hyundai is seen in Europe? 
• How is AI-driven search changing automotive marketing, and how is Hyundai preparing to become part of AI-generated recommendations? 
• Out of every 100 marketing euros, how much should go toward brand building versus performance marketing? 
• Why ist Hyundai becoming the Official Automotive Partner of the UEFA Champions League 

Ready for a fresh perspective on automotive marketing? Grab your headphones and listen to the new DMEXCO Podcast episode with Laura Rathai and Verena Gründel! And if you want even more inspiration from the digital industry live: join us on September 23 and 24, 2026, at DMEXCO in Cologne!