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Autos Accounted for Lots of Online Chatter During Super Bowl

February 8, 2013

By Cynthia Herbert :: 6:53 AM

social media data from cars.comDuring last Sunday’s Super Bowl, automakers accounted for nearly 20 percent of all commercials on television. The folks at Cars.com tracked the online chatter to and looked at which auto ads prompted car 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.”

Findings as displayed on the infographic at the bottom of this post show that auto advertisers saw the following social buzz and search activity on Cars.com during the big game (in alphabetical order):

Automotive advertiser Total social media mentions Share of search on Cars.com
Audi 9,996 14.3%
Hyundai 3,734 17.2%
Jeep 2,547 9.2%
Kia 3,901 6.4%
Lincoln 1,514 6.9%
Mercedes-Benz 3,086 15.8%
Ram 14,468 2.5%
Toyota 2,157 19.7%
Volkswagen 8,063 8.1%

Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota saw the largest growth in search on Cars.com as a result of their Super Bowl ads. Social media mentions were dominated by Audi, Dodge Ram and Volkswagen. Overall, Audi showed the best balance between social buzz and search.

There were 10 auto brand advertisers with 13 total minutes of automotive ad time and 47% of auto related ads were pre-released before the game. Additionally, according to data collected by Cars.com, the first quarter of the game drove the most social buzz, and there were a total of 273,062 mentions on social media.

Auto companies represented 19% of Super Bowl national advertisers with 13 minutes of ad time. Despite a blackout that spurred more than 200,000 social media posts at the beginning of the third quarter, the buzz still belonged to brands.

Below – Cars.com infographic – click for larger version:

Cars.com social buzz infographic