CHICAGO -

Along with analysis of what commercial produced the biggest impact, Cars.com is looking to continue to leverage its spot shown during this past Sunday’s Super Bowl.

In front of an audience of 108 million viewers, Cars.com debuted the first ad of its new campaign that has been asking the question, “why drama?” The site answered the question with a campaign entitled “ALL DRIVE. No drama.”

Cars.com’s chief marketing officer Linda Bartman said, “After testing the concept with actual car buyers earlier this year, we were confident that the new commercial and overall theme of drama-free car shopping would resonate with all car shoppers.

“With over 86 percent of YouTube ratings being positive, it is clear that the new spot was a hit and has a very relatable message,” Bartman continued.

As a result of the commercial, the site’s homepage, which was sponsored by Hyundai, saw a significant spike in traffic. Most notable was a 118-percent increase in combined mobile traffic, including Cars.com’s apps, mobile site and visits to the Cars.com wired site from mobile devices.

“With so many people using their mobile devices while watching TV, it is not surprising that our biggest spike in traffic came from mobile,” Bartman said. “However, a traffic boost isn’t the only reason we advertise during the Big Game. With a new fully-integrated campaign we wanted to kick it off in front of a large, captive audience, encouraging consumers to continue to interact with our brand beyond Sunday’s game and when they’re next in the market for a new car.”

With Cars.com’s Big Game ad kicking off the site’s “ALL DRIVE. No drama.” campaign, new creative will continue to go live throughout the early part of this year.

With the integrated campaign in full swing, the site explained shoppers will see a range of creative come to life like digital “dramatizer” ads that can allow users to add drama with the click of a button to an otherwise non-dramatic situation, and an interactive social “dramatizer” on Cars.com’s Facebook page that can allow fans to add some drama to their own photos.

Beyond digital and social, Cars.com will also be releasing five new TV spots and various new radio and print ads.

“With the full campaign now live, shoppers will see a variety of executions demonstrating that although drama is fun in certain places, car shopping isn't one of them,” Bartman said. “With tools like consumer and expert reviews, millions of car listings and easy access to dealer information, Cars.com connects car shoppers with dealers to make buying a car a great experience.”

To view Cars.com’s Big Game ad as well as other new ads from the site, visit www.cars.com/nodrama. 

Cars.com Super Bowl Ad Analysis

During Sunday’s Big Game, automakers accounted for nearly 20 percent of all commercials. Cars.com listened to online chatter to make the call: Which auto advertiser drove away as MVP of social media?

In addition to tracking social buzz, Cars.com also looked at which auto ads prompted shoppers to search for more information on the site.

“Over the years, automakers have flocked to the Big Game to show off their newest models and entertain viewers,” said Patrick Olsen, Cars.com’s editor in chief. “We examined which auto-related commercials in the Big Game not only created buzz, but also drove the greatest activity on our site, by looking at searches for each manufacturer on Cars.com.”

As a result, these findings show how auto advertisers saw the following social buzz and search activity on Cars.com during the Big Game. In alphabetical order, the figures indicate total social media mentions and chare of search on Cars.com.

—Audi: 9,996 mentions, 14.3 percent share
—Hyundai: 3,734 mentions, 17.2 percent share
—Jeep: 2,547 mentions, 9.2 percent share
—Kia: 3,901 mentions, 6.4 percent share
—Lincoln: 1,514 mentions, 6.9 percent share
—Mercedes-Benz: 3,086 mentions, 15.8 percent share
—Ram: 14,468 mentions, 2.5 percent share
—Toyota: 2,157 mentions, 19.7 percent share
—Volkswagen: 8,063 mentions, 8.1 percent share

Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota all saw the largest growth in search on Cars.com as a result of their Big Game ads.

Social media mentions were dominated by Audi, Ram and Volkswagen. However, overall, Audi showed the best balance between social buzz and search.

There were 10 auto brand advertisers, 13 total minutes of automotive ad time and 47 percent of auto related ads were released before the game.

Additionally, according to Cars.com data, the first quarter of the game drove the most social buzz, and there were a total of 273,062 Big Game mentions on social media.

Automakers represented 19 percent of Big Game national advertisers with 13 minutes of ad time. Despite a blackout that spurred more than 200,000 social media posts, the buzz still belonged to brands.

For Cars.com’s editors’ rankings and reviews of all auto related Big Game commercials, visit blogs.cars.com.

Jumpstart: Lincoln, Hyundai Super Bowl Ads Blitz Online Shoppers

In more analysis of what brands fared best with their Super Bowl campaigns, Jumpstart Automotive Group released highlights of its fourth annual Super Bowl Advertising ROI Analysis Wednesday — a study that reveals the brands making the biggest impact with online shoppers in and around game time.

For marketers, officials say this study is especially critical in revealing the immediate effectiveness, or lack thereof, of traditional media investments among new-vehicle buyers — the majority of whom (79 percent) turn to the Internet to research their vehicle purchase.

Jumpstart’s analysis gauges online traffic to automotive brand pages across 12 vehicle shopping and research websites in the company’s partner network on Super Bowl Sunday and Monday compared to the prior week.  Gains in share of car shoppers to these brand pages are then calculated as a percentage.

Results of the Jumpstart Super Bowl Advertising ROI Analysis are as follows:

—Lincoln, with its ad “Phoenix” that featured the sleek MKZ sedan emerging from the desert, scored the biggest points with online shoppers, leaping 63 percent in share over the prior week and nearly three times as much as the next closest automotive advertiser. 

—Hyundai Santa Fe’s hilarious ads “Team” and “Epic Playdate” combined kids with comedy to great effect, while Fiat 500’s “Sisters” and “Topless” commercials used ‘sexy’ to sell its L and Abarth models. Both brands saw the second and third greatest Sunday/Monday share of shopper gains over the same timeframe the prior week, with increases of 24 percent and 15 percent respectively.

—Toyota’s humorous and wacky wish-granting spot for the RAV4 (13 percent) and Hyundai Sonata’s “Stuck” (12 percent), featuring clever driving situations in which the Sonata turbo helps a couple get ‘unstuck’, rounded out the top five increases in share of shoppers across Jumpstart’s partner network of automotive sites. 

—Three of the top five advertisers ran multiple commercials (Lincoln, Hyundai and Fiat).  Kia followed suit with ads for the Sorento and Forte, yet the automaker saw a half percent decrease in share of shoppers despite its multi-spot investment.

“While the top five contenders saw considerable lift in brand interest among millions of car shoppers in our network, this year’s increases were significantly smaller than last,” said Nick Matarazzo, chief executive officer of Jumpstart Automotive Group. 

“The online pre-release of commercials prior to the game helped dull viewer response and ultimately online shopper response, however, we were excited to see an influx of mobile car shoppers to our network, particularly among iPhone users,” Matarazzo continued.

Jumpstart highlighted other notable post-Super Bowl mobile trends:

—Jumpstart’s mobile device traffic grew 12 percent on Super Bowl Sunday compared to the prior week.

—iPhone users represented the heftiest week over week mobile user increase at 27 percent.

—Tablet traffic decreased by one percent on Super Bowl Sunday compared to the prior Sunday.

In the coming weeks, Jumpstart will release a longer-term analysis to help marketers gauge the sustainability of their Super Bowl campaigns among online shoppers in its partner network of sites, along with an estimated Super Bowl Advertising Cost Analysis that reveals the expense of each brand campaign weighed against the gain in share of shoppers.
 

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