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Brand Experience: From Technology to Culture

For over 80 years, Hankook Tire has defined the standard of a ‘good tire’ through technology and performance. However, the brand's growth is no longer defined solely by performance-centric communication. As the way people move evolves and driving expands into a lifestyle, the world the brand must showcase is also broadening. Tires are no longer just tools for driving, but mediums that enable travel, introduce new spaces, and expand everyday experiences.

Amid these changes, Hankook Tire is expanding its touchpoints in various ways to seamlessly blend into people's daily lives. One such approach is collaboration, which connects the brand's perspective and values with other fields to create new experiences. Collaboration is not simply about sharing logos; rather, it is a process of translating the essence of ‘movement’ into richer experiences by connecting it with other cultures. Throughout 2025, Hankook Tire has shared the ‘joy of movement’ in more everyday spaces beyond the road through activities in diverse fields, ranging from digital artist collaborations to lifestyle festivals, sports events, and gaming content.

Brand Experience 1 – Brand Storytelling with Digital Creators

Since 2022, Hankook Tire has pursued a new form of brand storytelling through the Hankook X Digital Creator collaboration project. This year, we continue to collaborate with a diverse range of creators, using these opportunities to naturally convey Hankook Tire's multi-layered appeal to different generations.

Among these efforts, the collaboration with illustrator Sketch Juni was an attempt to convey the brand's established image and vibe in a more approachable way. By depicting vehicles equipped with Ventus, iON, and Dynapro products using the illustrator's signature vivid colors and dynamic drawing style, the collaboration vividly captured both product characteristics and brand mood through striking visuals.

  • Hankook Technoring: Hankook Tire’s Advanced Test Infrastructure Recreated on Precision Blocks

Another notable initiative was the digital content created with LEGO Master Kim Seong-wan. Using approximately 8,000 blocks to recreate the core test tracks and R&D spaces of Hankook Technoring—Asia's largest tire proving ground—at a 1:700 scale, this project showcased Hankook Tire's advanced test infrastructure in a unique and novel way. In addition, the production process was released through time-lapse and stop-motion videos, garnering high interest on digital channels.

By reinterpreting Hankook Technoring's technology-intensive and innovative space as a model using the familiar creative tool of LEGO blocks, and presenting it through videos and images, the brand's technological prowess was conveyed through the universal appeal of fun and easy assembly. As a result, the content expanded to resonate with a broad audience, ranging from Gen Z to families.

  • 기술에서 문화로, 한국타이어가 만들어가는 ‘Driving Emotion’
  • 기술에서 문화로, 한국타이어가 만들어가는 ‘Driving Emotion’

  • Formula E Season 11 Racing Performance Reinterpreted Through the Eyes of Monomas

Collaborations with digital influencers also continued. The Formula E & iON series content created with virtual influencer Monomas is an example of a new method of brand storytelling that bridges reality and the digital world. By visualizing the performance of iON, the official tire of the world's premier EV racing competition, the Formula E World Championship, within Monomas's unique worldview, the content naturally aligned with Hankook Tire's future-oriented brand image.

In particular, the virtual influencer's signature stylish direction and bold use of color emphasized the new sense of speed and innovation of the EV era, demonstrating exceptional quality and execution.

These digital-based collaborations can be seen as a form of communication that expresses Hankook Tire’s innovative sensibility and future mobility vision in a more creative and immersive way. Technology, safety, and vision were reinterpreted through the perspectives of various creators, helping to further broaden the brand's reach and resonance.

Brand Experience 2 – Driving Experience Expanding into Virtual Space

Online- and mobile-based gaming platforms offer a content consumption environment that is both a part of daily life and highly immersive. Hankook Tire leverages these digital spaces as new brand touchpoints, engaging in various activities that allow users to naturally experience the “joy of driving” and the brand’s personality within the virtual world.

Collaborations with KartRider: Drift and KartRider Rush+ are examples of how Hankook Tire's EV racing technology has been seamlessly integrated into the gaming environment.

These collaborations were designed to allow players to experience the speed and dynamism of iON solely through virtual driving, using karts, items, and graphic effects inspired by iON, the official EV tire of the Formula E World Championship. ‘Hankook’ brand elements placed throughout the tracks further enhanced immersion by evoking the atmosphere of real motorsport circuits.

This gaming initiative was an attempt to extend the driving experience into the virtual world and allow the product's technology and energy to be felt more vividly. The games’ fast-paced movement and exhilarating driving mechanics aligned naturally with the dynamism of the tire brand, creating a new form of brand experience that fluidly connects reality and the virtual space.

Brand Experience 3 – Transition to a Lifestyle Brand: Connecting Technology and Daily Life

Hankook Tire has boldly broken away from the stereotype that tire brand experiences must only take place on the road. Moving beyond “technology on the road,” we are creating new experiences in spaces where people actively move, rest, and find joy. The goal is to allow people to naturally encounter the brand in the places where their daily enjoyment is most vibrant.

  • 기술에서 문화로, 한국타이어가 만들어가는 ‘Driving Emotion’

  • Hankook Tire ‘Tube Shop’ operated at Miami Beach, USA, and Yangyang Beach, Korea. It was set up as a space where tire-shaped tubes could be rented.

One of the representative brand activities embedded in everyday life is the ‘Hankook Tire Tube Shop’. Hankook Tire focused on the fact that just as safety is crucial for driving, it is equally vital for water activities. By producing tubes modeled after tire shapes and providing them for free use at beaches, the brand went beyond a simple rental service, allowing its values to naturally permeate moments of rest and play.

Beginning at Yangyang Beach, Korea's representative surfing destination, the Tube Shop expanded to Miami Beach, a host city for Formula E World Championship sponsored by Hankook Tire. This expansion further strengthened global brand touchpoints. Visitors experienced Hankook Tire's brand value anew in a space that blended racing energy with beach relaxation. Through an experience combining play and rest, they were able to intuitively connect with the brand’s message of “safety” in their daily lives.

The Tire Tube Shop offered more than rentals of tubes inspired by racing tire designs. It enabled visitors to experience Hankook Tire's technology and dynamism in a unique way within the casual beach setting through events like the heavy tire flip game and the exhibition of a giant GEN3 Evo iON Race model.

  • 기술에서 문화로, 한국타이어가 만들어가는 ‘Driving Emotion’
  • 기술에서 문화로, 한국타이어가 만들어가는 ‘Driving Emotion’

  • Ball-Feet, a camping chair accessory collaborated on by Hankook Tire and Helinox. It prevents camping chair legs from sinking into the ground or wobbling.

The upcycled product Ball-Feet, created with global outdoor brand Helinox, exemplifies how tire technology can be extended into leisure goods. As an ESG initiative based on circular resource utilization, the product adds meaning beyond simple merchandise. By using compound left over from the production of high-performance racing tires to create camping chair accessories, and by applying the tread pattern of the SUV tire Dynapro XT to the design, the product harmoniously captures Hankook Tire's unique driving spirit and outdoor style.

  • Race Beyond Limits

Building on this momentum, Hankook Tire participated in the GO OUT Camp, further broadening its consumer touchpoints. By operating a brand booth where camping participants could touch and experience the products firsthand, the brand conveyed the message that tire technology can extend to everyday outdoor experiences.

Brand experiences at sports venues played a crucial role in bringing Hankook Tire closer to family consumers. Hankook Tire operated STRIKE ZONE pop-ups at various baseball stadiums in Korea, providing hands-on brand experiences through tire-based games such as Tire Strike, where participants rolled a tire to knock down bowling pins, and Tire Ring Toss, where tire tubes were thrown onto posts.

In particular, a service inspired by stadium “Beer Boys,” called Tire Boys, drew strong on-site responses. The service provided tire condition checks and air pressure inspections for vehicles visiting the stadium, offering practical convenience to spectators. These on-site brand activities became meaningful attempts to increase brand familiarity in the everyday leisure spaces, helping consumers remember Hankook Tire as an “experience” rather than “information.”

Through these initiatives, Hankook Tire continues to expand its brand experience into spaces where consumers' daily lives are most active, such as campsites, baseball stadiums, and beaches, thereby broadening consumer touchpoints in a more multi-dimensional way. The significance lies in the brand’s effort to naturally and comfortably integrate into the places where people gather, talk, and enjoy themselves.

Hankook Tire: A New Brand Narrative Leading to Experience

Hankook Tire's diverse brand activities to date can be understood as a shift from isolated messages to an “experience-based narrative.” Through collaborations with digital creators, engagement in virtual games spaces, and presence in everyday environments like beaches, campsites, and baseball stadiums, Hankook Tire continues to expand its brand universe in unique ways.

hankook technoring

The direction Hankook Tire is pursuing is becoming increasingly clear. Beyond “Driving Emotion,” on-road performance, and technology, it is to evolve into a brand that enriches every moment of life connected to “mobility.” Along this journey, consumers encounter the brand as an experience rather than information, establishing a solid foundation for the sustainable value Hankook Tire seeks to create.

By expanding the emotional value of driving into diverse content and experiences, Hankook Tire will continue to broaden its brand world in 2026 through new initiatives that connect generations and lifestyles.

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