Kia Motors America will return to cinemas for the premiere of its 2013 Super Bowl commercial. The automaker’s complete 60-second “Space Babies” ad for the redesigned 2014 Sorento CUV will premiere on Feb. 1 on more than 19,000 movie screens nationwide in NCM Media Networks’ “FirstLook” pre-show program before airing on TV during the game.

Kia kicked off the campaign with 15-second teaser ads in movie theatres on Jan. 25. The teaser and full spot will run in NCM’s new “Big Game Ad Showcase,” a premium-placement pod designed to give audiences a preview of the best in Super Bowl advertising.

Set to air in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLVII and directed by Jake Scott, “Space Babies” reveals the existence of a faraway planet known as “Babylandia” and follows infant boys, girls, dogs, pandas and more on their journey to Earth to join their new families.

Kia was the first advertiser to premiere its spot on movie screens before the big game. The NCM Media Networks and Nielsen NRG conducted a custom research study of consumers who had seen the Kia Optima commercial last year both in theatres as well as during the Super Bowl, and the positive effect of the combination of TV and cinema on the audience was significant. While 46% of people who saw the Kia ad during the Super Bowl were able to recall it unaided, that number jumped to 70% unaided recall for people who saw it both in NCM’s “FirstLook” and in the Super Bowl. When it came to total recall (aided and unaided), the combination of cinema plus TV resulted in 95% total recall of the ad by people who saw it both at the movies and during the Super Bowl.

“Kia’s blockbuster success as the first Super Bowl advertiser to ever premiere in cinema was the perfect set-up for a sequel this year,” says Cliff Marks, president of sales and marketing with NCM Media Networks. “The NCM Cinema Network is the number-one network in the country on weekends, so the audiences flocking to our theatres on the Friday and Saturday before the big game will get to be the first to experience this fun commercial. Our 40-foot big screens certainly help to build brand buzz, and when smart advertisers like Kia use them in combination with TV, it can have a major impact on campaign ROI.”

“Launching Kia’s Super Bowl commercial in NCM’s ‘FirstLook’ for the second consecutive year builds on last year’s tremendous success where we saw a noteworthy lift in purchase consideration and, equally important, it created early buzz before more than 100 million people saw it during the big game,” says Michael Sprague, Kia’s executive VP, marketing and communications.