Hyundai’s ‘Walking Dead’ App Could Pose Creative Opportunity for Captive

Are there financing opportunities in the upcoming zombie apocalypse? With Hyundai’s marketing partnership with AMC’s hit series “The Walking Dead,” there very well could be.

In addition to the Hyundai Tucson among the vehicles the main characters use on the show, the automaker and original comic book creator Robert Kirkman teamed up for a new app called “The Walking Dead Chop Shop” that allows users to customize a Hyundai Elantra, Santa Fe, or Veloster Turbo with more than 300 parts — like plows, flamethrowers, or crossbows — to create their very own survival vehicle.

Seen at right is a tricked-out Elantra designed by Samuel S., which was found on the chop shop’s website. 

Users can also answer trivia about the comics to unlock additional parts, share their designs on Facebook, Twitter, and in the app’s gallery, and even put pit their car up against other survivalists. Kirkman will choose one app user’s vehicle to be built and unveiled at New York Comic-Con in early October, right around the time the show’s fourth season starts.

I think there is a lot of leverage Hyundai Capital America could have gotten out of this promotion, which ends Aug. 15. In the section where users could choose which of the three available cars, for example, that could’ve been an opportunity to shows the Elantra is available for 0% financing for up to 60 months, or the Veloster can be leased for $179 for 36 months.

I think it would be really neat to see HCA set up at October’s Comic-Con, when the winning design will be “deployed,” as the app says, with information for attendees to see about financing their own zombie survival Elantra, Santa Fe, or Veloster. It sure would be a unique way to harness all the hype surrounding the popular show — and the current zombie craze — while also reaching a untapped market.