AUTO COMMERCIALS DURING THE BIG GAME SEND CAR SHOPPERS FLOCKING TO CARS.COM IN SEARCH OF THEIR OWN MVP

The Big Game was not only a fierce competition between the top two professional football teams, it was also a battleground for the five automakers that ran a combined six commercials during the game on Sunday, tallying six minutes and 30 seconds in total airtime. Leading automotive digital marketplace Cars.com™ (NYSE: CARS) analyzed site traffic throughout the evening to determine which auto ads generated the greatest amount of online car-shopping activity during game time. The results show a 384 percent combined lift in traffic to the automakers’ brand pages on Cars.com that advertised during the game.

“Our site analytics prove that millions of fans use a second screen to visit Cars.com during major live televised events like the Big Game to research, shop and connect with dealers in real-time — and we’re there to help get them over the goal line,” said Brooke Skinner Ricketts, chief marketing officer at Cars.com. “With 19 million ready-to-buy consumers coming to our site each month, we have an eagle eye’s view on car-shopping behavior across every state and auto brand. Shoppers are coming to Cars.com after seeing automaker ads on TV looking for unbiased information, trusted pricing tools, and the power to easily cross-shop multiple makes and models.”

Of the automakers that invested in airtime during the game, Hyundai ranked No. 1 in traffic to Cars.com. Within eight minutes of its commercial airing, visits to Hyundai brand pages on Cars.com saw an 1,831 percent increase in comparison to the same time period prior to the airing of its spot.

Here’s the full ranking of automakers that advertised during the game and the resulting impact on online shopping activity on Cars.com:

1. Hyundai: 1,831%
2. Mercedes-Benz: 720%
3. Audi: 691%
4. Toyota (after RAV4 Hybrid commercial): 225%
5. Toyota (after Supra commercial): 138%
6. Kia: -14%

Mobile visits also continued to grow throughout the game, with 74.2% of visits coming from a mobile device during the game, up from 69.2% before the game started. Cars.com reported on its Q3 2018 earnings call that 68 percent of its network traffic comes from a mobile device.

Methodology

Cars.com site traffic data was collected in real-time, and performance of TV commercials were measured by comparing the eight minutes immediately before and after each commercial aired.

¹ Cars.com internal data, August 2018