The move represents a bold step by Kia which - to date - has concentrated on the local low-priced, small car market.
A spokesperson for Kia Automotive Australia, which imports the Kia brand, said the new campaign was born out of a realisation that Kia needed to extend its voice beyond simply sponsorship deals if it wanted to gain a larger slice of the market.
"Kia sponsors the Australian Open and this obviously gives us an enormous wave of publicity at the beginning of the year," the spokesperson said.
"This means we have a big raft of publicity in January and February with the tennis and then it goes quite quiet. What we wanted to do was spread the message throughout the year.
"Normally, Andre Agassi would not be within our budget limits but the European Kia car importers signed him on to do some advertisements for them and we have been able to ride on the back of that and use the material in Australia. "We're hitting substantially above our weight."
Initially, Agassi will be used to pump the new Sorento commercial vehicle.
Kia aims to sell at least 100 of the new range each month, with plans to rollout a 4WD and diesel version from later this year. Kia has enjoyed strong sales with latest figures from April showing a rise of more than 22 per cent when compared with April 2002.
