The contest coincides with the Black Sheep music video campaign for Soul, which hip hop hamsters sing “You can get with this, or you can get with that” comparing the virtues of the Soul vehicle with rolling appliances.

Participants have to create their own music video using Kia Soul as a thematic idea, and the tag, “A new way to roll.” The contest is on now until the end of September, with the top two finalists going on Kia’s dime to Los Angeles for the announcement of the grand prize winner, who will receive a $10,000 prize.

Michael Sprague, Kia VP of marketing & communications says, “Social media is an important part of the marketing strategy for Soul and engaging passionate enthusiasts in this space creates additional opportunities to build buzz through a new, interactive experience.”

Currently, Kia Soul promotes itself with widespread Yahoo! ads, Facebook applications and their very own Youtube channel.

Check out the Kia Contest Rules and enter at their official website.

“Our data show that truly effective advertising starts with a great creative idea,” said Lois Miller, President of Nielsen Automotive. “When you combine that idea with a memorable and unique hook that grabs the viewer’s attention, you are going to get the results that we saw from Kia this year.”

Source: LeftLaneNews

Just how similar are the two small, hatchback-like vehicles? Well, they are both owned, in a sense, by General Motors. But what else? Let’s have a look:

Upon first glance, there are many similar design aspects between Granite and Soul. Of course, Soul has already been in production over a year – where GMC’s “Utility Vehicle” is only in production phase. It’s not uncommon to see different auto makers steal…I mean share designs. Example: Honda Insight, Toyota Prius, and to some extent the upcoming Chevy Volt. But let’s look at the facts: “Prices at $13,300, the Soul base model comes with a 122-horsepower, 1.6-liter four-cyl – no automatic transmission is offered with the base engine. The other three Soul trim levels come with a 142-horsepower, 2.0-liter four cyl and a choice of the five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic. At its highest price ($18,900) you are still under $20K for the total Sports version with all available options.”

As for Granite – “Power for the Granite concept comes from a 1.4L turbocharged engine that is part of GM’s new family of small-displacement, highly efficient four-cylinder engines. It is matched with a six-speed transmission.” No word on pricing, but we are guessing Granite won’t break out of the $20 – 25,000 mark, if it wants to stay competitive anyway.

One major difference with Soul & Granite – Kia hasn’t taken the idea of suicide doors under consideration. But at 2010′s NAIAS rear-hung doors seem to be quite an eye-catcher. Whether or not they will remain in a final, practical, release model you’ll just have to wait and see.

Inside, the Granite concept dash looks more like something Harrison Ford should be piloting. Both Kia and GMC really enhance the appearance and usability of their interior compartments. Even base models of lower-end vehicles retain some sort of classy styling inside – materials cost money, but cool ideas are free flowing. We’ll wait and see what Granite ends up looking like, and how it will truly compare to Kia’s Soul.

At a starting price of $18,195, It comes with rally-inspired skin painted Ignition Orange and wearing offset black racing stripes. There’s also black 18-inch wheels with machined accents, a sunroof, and an alloy fuel-filler door.

Inside, Ignition Soul has black cloth seats with Soul print on the backrests, an upgraded stereo with six speakers, a subwoofer, a 315-watt amp, and seizure-inducing speaker lights that pulse with the beat of the music. An iPod connection cable and Bluetooth round out the stereo upgrades.

The game pits you as a magnet controller lifting as many adorable hamsters as possible into 2010 Kia Souls, but you better watch out for those slippery fishes, they’re out to get ya! The game is pretty absurd, and also requires the download of an .exe file and instillation of a webcam. Check out the press release below – and try out the game on Face Book: Go Hamster Go!

Kia Motors wants to connect with customers and potential customers via a new Facebook application, but if you don’t have a webcam, you’re out of luck.

Since the application is Facebook-based, it might have made sense to also have an option that just ports in one’s Facebook picture, says David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at New York-based 360i. “Webcams do exclude people, though they are increasingly built into new laptops and are more common for video chat,” Berkowitz says.

If you followed our monthly sales reports lately, you must have noticed increasing US sales numbers for the Soul crossover. Since Kia put its youth-oriented crossover on sale four months ago, more than 8.000 people drove it home already. And these are only US sales numbers. If we add around 1000 Souls that are being sold in Canada each month and count also increasing European sales, it becomes more obvious that the 2010 Soul is a vey, very popular in just about every corner of the globe.

Soul has been selling particularly well in the UK market. According to Kia Motors UK, the company needed only 100 days to sell the 1000th Soul! Selling 1000 cars of one model in only 100 days after its official launch is a major milestone for the company, especially when considering the current economic gloom. So congrats to all of you @ Kia UK!

A happy Soul owner has driven home the Soul Shaker, coated in Vanilla exterior color and equipped with 1.6L CRDi diesel engine. His Soul Shaker runs on 18-inch alloy wheels and features a unique houndstooth interior trim. It is also equipped with a small LCD screen positioned in the rear view mirror that turns on when the shifter’s moved to reverse mode. From my Soul test-drive experience, this is a very useful part of equipement that every car should have applied.

Most popular model in the UKs Soul range is the Soul 2 making up almost 50 per cent of the sales mix split almost evenly between petrol and diesel – diesel is slightly favoured. The favourite Soul Original from the range is the Vanilla wrapped Shaker CRDi, taking just over 16 per cent of Soul sales.

Prices begin at $13,300 for the Soul base model with a 122-horsepower, 1.6-liter four-cyl – no automatic transmission is offered with the base engine. The other three Soul trim levels — Plus, Exclaim and Sport — come with a 142-horsepower, 2.0-liter four cyl and a choice of the five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic. At its highest price ($18,900) you are still under $20K for the total Sports version with all available options.

Kia has been trying to make a name for itself since the early 2000′s, when cheaper made vehicles were their bread and butter. Since then, with sportier versions of the Rio5 and Spectra5 have garnered positive attention from both reviewers and fans. It looks like with Soul Kia may finally grab some respect from car buyers.

Kia Soul Promotional Video 1

Kia Soul Promotional Video 2

We dig the funky 70′s groove this Kia Soul Promotional video has – gettin’ down with its bad self.

From Kia’s Official Press Release:

Kia Motors will unveil a new take on the Soul at the 2009 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit in January.

The all-new concept based on the recently revealed and eagerly anticipated Soul urban crossover passenger car is more than just a re-packaging treatment, as it will demonstrate the flexibility of the original Soul design first shown at the 2006 NAIAS.

Soul is due to go on sale in the UK from March 1 2009. Full range details, specification and prices are yet to be revealed but Soul will be available to UK customers with fuel-efficient 1.6 liter petrol and 1.6 litre diesel engines and with a wide range of personalization options.

The Kia Motors press conference for the 2009 NAIAS is scheduled to take place on Sunday, January 11, 2009 from 2:20-2:45 pm.

Sharp, eh? I much prefer the look of the Kia Soul to the Scion’s that it’s likely to compete against.

The Soul debuted ahead of the Paris Motor Show, and should be available in the U.S. a year from now.

According to Kia: The production Kia Soul will be available with a choice of three engines: two gasoline powerplants along with a diesel option. The latter option will be a 1.6-liter turbodiesel power unit with VGT (variable geometry turbocharger), power output will stand at 126hp and 255Nm of torque. The gasoline engines start with a 1.6-liter option which generates 126hp and 156Nm of torque, as well as a 2.0-liter unit that boasts 142hp although this last option will only be available in the US and some non-European markets.