Kia Canada is giving a whole new meaning to the term “trunk space” in a new TV spot promoting its 2012 Sorento and Sportage SUV models.

The 30-second “Conquer Winter” spot, created by agency of record Innocean Canada, highlights the two vehicles and their available all-wheel drive feature. It opens with a young family driving a Sorento across a picturesque winter landscape, when a gnarled tree suddenly comes to life – courtesy of visual effects by Vancouver FX studio The Embassy – and begins chasing the vehicle across the snow-covered terrain.

Along the way, the Sorento passes a Sportage driven by another young couple, which also manages to elude capture. As the tree recedes in the background, a voiceover and super reading “conquer winter” appear.

Jack Sulymka, national marketing manager for Kia, said the inspiration for the spot came from the company’s sponsorship of the recent Fulda Challenge, an endurance race set in Canada’s north. The automaker supplied 22 vehicles to transport athletes and media representatives to race locations, where they performed in temperatures that reached as low as -50 Celsius.

“The vehicles performed well up there, and we wanted to articulate that in the Conquer Winter campaign,” said Sulymka.

The TV spot is being complemented by a direct mail piece distributed to select households across the country, as well as online ads.

The media buy for the campaign was handled by ZenithOptimedia Canada.

Kia sold 65,123 units in Canada last year, the most in its 12-year history and a 20.9% increase over 2010. Sulymka called the Sorento one of the “pillars” of the Kia lineup, noting that it led all models with 2011 sales of 15,105 units (the first time a Kia vehicle has topped the 15,000 sales mark in Canada).

Sulymka said that the recent success reflects a company firing on all cylinders. “We’ve got a great agency, we’ve got some good creative people behind the scenes, we have the vision, a great network of dealers and I can’t say enough about the product,” he said.