Cars.com Superbowl commercials – What did you think?

These two commercials are the kickoff of Cars.com's 200 million dollar 08 advertising campaign. The commercials will be followed by 6-8, maybe more, newer commercials throughout the year. Since the game was the most-watched Super Bowl ever with 97.5 million viewers and second most-watched American television broadcast ever, I think the effort Cars.com is putting forward for its participating dealers has to be applauded. I do work for Cars.com/Tribune, so I am interested in what everyone on DealerRefresh thought of them. Even biased Lightnup, although I am sure he will have nothing constructive to say.

McCoy,

If you like what I say, it'll be constructive....if not, it's BS, as Alex refers to it.

Okay, here's my take on the two cars.com ads (and I would have the same concerns if they had been AutoTrader.com ads): What was the point?

If, as the ad says, Confidence Comes Standard when one uses cars.com, the shopper would have no need to bring along an elaborate Plan B. In my opinion, it implied exactly the opposite: the shopper wasn't very confident in cars.com, so he felt it necessary to still bring along the medicine man and the psychotic fire dude.

If I ruled the cars.com advertising world, I would have had the customer talking to his Plan B characters at home, explaining to their pouting faces why they couldn't come along to the dealership like they used to when car buying time came around (showing flashbacks of previous times when Plan B was used), because he no longer needs them now that he has used cars.com to do his research and found the right car at the right price. THAT would have exemplified confidence on the part of the cars.com user. Maybe at the end have the medicine man shrink the fire-guy's head right after the shopper leaves for the dealership, "I told you not to tell him about cars.com!" Then the slogan: Confidence Comes Standard . Whatever, just thinking out loud.

At any rate, I thought for the nearly $6 million paid, the message should have been clearer and more forceful. That's my $0.02 cents worth, and I won't even charge cars.com for my advertising consulting here.

For their sake, I hope the return is worth the investment. Time will tell.

I wasn't particularly impressed with the commercials. I agree with Jeff, they were "average at best".

What did impress me was the fact that Cars.com ran two of them. I didn't see any for Autotrader.com. (If there were any for Autotrader I must have been away from the TV). To me, this is indicative of the online classified marketplace. The more dealers I speak with, the more have been signing up with Cars.com and more have been cancelling or downgrading Autotrader.com. It's obvious Cars.com is making a real run at capturing more market share, and I think they're doing it effectively. A few years ago it was Autotrader.com that was branded EVERYWHERE. Now I feel like I'm seeing more Cars.com branding. I know Autotrader.com likes to do most of their stuff during the summer months, so we'll have to see the numbers by the end of the year.

Lightnup-

I finally figured out what your name means. I thought it was meant to say "Lighten up guys", but I think it really means "lightn' up a joint" because you must be smoking something. Did you really analyze those ads that far? I think you were doing a little too much puffin' and not enough giving dude! Do you really think the Super Bowl audience is analyzing the ads that far? Do you think someone watching any television show is going to think that? Pass that sucker - you're about to burn your fingers!

Average at best also.

Did it increase visits/search numbers for a day or two, yes. Was it a huge ego stroke for senior management at Classified Ventures, sure it was. Will it really bring that much measurable ROI to us as dealers over the next 6 months...... you're kidding right! Have to admit I'm not sure exactly where autotrader markets their site, if at all, in the Winter months, but they've had good exposure in the Spring/Summer in the past.

Alex -

If the purpose of the ad was only to get their name on TV, they could have run someone repeating the name "cars.com" over and over for 30 seconds. But the purpose it is send a message or paint a picture of the benefits of the product. I just don't think they did a very good job of that with either ad.

After the buildup emails from cars.com informing me to get ready, I was beginning to think I would need to hire 20 more ISC's to handle the extra traffic. I thought I would see cars.com propaganda all over the place during the superbowl. I watched the entire game (with minimal breaks and didn't drink at all ;p ) and only remember seeing the one with the medicine man and the logo one time. Maybe I was expecting more because of the hype via emails, maybe more will become of this I dunno? Maybe they should have used a Badger or a Gecko since that is all the rage these days.

Maybe we were the ones that got sold? I wonder if some Dealers were thinking about canceling cars.com held off because of the HUGE Superbowl kickoff? The marketing department has also been using that as a get on board now or miss out message.

I thought the commercials were entertaining at first glance, but as a sales professional, I was offended by both commercials. Both hinted at the long-held reputation of dealers being hard-nosed (where the head shrinker comes in) or so unwilling to work with the customer they need a good thrashing (Gorgon the fire/ultimate fighter guy). I really appreciate the confidence our parters in Cars.com threw our way. I think it did a lot to subliminally say "dealers are bad, Cars.com is good."

This is in stark contrast to the sensing session Cars.com hosted recently. I had the opportunity to take part in a survey of upcoming advertisement a few months ago. Myself and several other ISMs were presented with various ads and our opinions were recorded during Q&A. Nothing we saw came close to what they put on t.v. I think they should have put some talking lizards on.

I'm with you Gerald. I got the same message.."dealers are bad, Cars.com is good."

I get so tired of everyone placing dealers and sales people as the bad guys BUT "they" just happen to have the solution for the consumer.

Yikes! That is definitely not what Cars.com intended to portray. Good feedback Gerald and Jeff. I do see where you are coming from. I use to sell cars myself, so I know the stigma and frustration. My take from the commercials was... we were trying to convey, that by going to Cars.com, consumers can find all the information on the vehicle they want(Carfax history, consumer reviews, ratings, finance information, location of the vehicle, pictures, etc) thus making them more "confident" in their purchase when they get to the dealership. I do see you view though.

Not to hi-jack the thread Jeff but can you say CARFAX?
If they don't put dealers in a bad light I don't know who does, but hey it is working for them. When was the last time you sold a used car without a carfax?

HOT OFF THE PRESSES! Cars.com recently spent a whopping 2.6 million dollars per Super Bowl ad in their most recent attempt to gain market share in the competitive automotive online advertising business...

Success or Digress? You be the judge!

Here's the 'real' dope DealerRefreshers! No pun intended friends...

Cars.com Stats for my dealership

Times vehicles appeared in search results:
Feb 1 - Feb 4, 2008 = 17,128
Jan 1 - Jan 4, 2008 = 29,944

People Requesting Details On Your Vehicles
Feb 1 - Feb 4, 2008 = 539
Jan 1 - Jan 4, 2008 = 859

Total Contacts
Feb 1 - Feb 4, 2008 = 18
Jan 1 - Jan 4, 2008 = 23

America, You Be The Judge! Vote Now!

Success or Digress?

I'd wager everyone saw a brief dip in traffic starting on the 1st & 2nd; the entire country was preoccupied with this year's SB.

Our traffic took a nose-dive on Sunday and sprung back to life yesterday. Cars.com was lucky enough in their timing to choose this year to snag ad space - the extra eyeballs should (hopefully) be good for a little extra traffic.

The spots may have seemed forced in their attempt at humor - but I chalk that up as their method of reaching out to their biggest user group. Again, hopefully they connected.

--sorry all, thread jack!--

Hey! Anyone going to NADA San Fran? We outta have a DR cocktail hour somewhere! Topic? World Domination in 8 easy steps, followed by a coming out party of Lightnup! hahahaa

We all got packed schedules, but you never know!

email me:
joe[dot]pistell[at]usedcarking[dot]com

IMO, these third-party sites like AT and Cars.com would be irrelevant if dealers had better websites that built up the customer's confidence. But the industry lags in that area, so we have these other companies that have to do it for us.

After a customer finds a vehicle they want on a third-party site, they are checking out the dealer site. That's where the dealership's unique personality needs to show through to build up customer confidence.

I agree with Gerald's comment about the ad's message...

"Dealers are bad"...that's why you would need a Plan B in the first place, but with our product, you'll have confidence to stand your ground and therefore will not need your Plan B.

Jeff Larsen - I know you're just making a point, but I think to be fair you need to extend your date range beyond 4 days. Just for starters, the day of the week has a lot to do with traffic. Jan. 1-4 was a Tues. through Fri. while Feb. 1-4 was a Friday through Monday. Jan 1-4 was a week when the majority of people were back at work after vacations, and Feb. 4th is the day of the year when an estimated 1.5 million people called in sick. I'd be interested to see your end of month comparison though.

Also, I think the ad was more of a branding message than a "drop what you're doing and go to cars.com now" message. I'm sure some reps tell the dealers to be ready for the influx of shoppers, but the fact is, running ads doesn't create more car shoppers. It just (hopefully) makes them think of cars.com when they are ready for their next vehicle.

Joe P - Cheap shot at Lightnup, although funny!

Jake - when it comes to Firinupaphatspliff....errrr.....Lightnup there is no such thing as a cheap shot. If he won't come out and say who he is, then he's free game!

Joe - I'll be there. Saturday night?

Jake- ok, to be fair will return in a few weeks and do comparison update.

Point being though, Cars.com paid $2.6 mil to advertise on the most anticipated advertising day on tv, one would think as a beneficiary of their product we would have experienced some sort of short term spike somewhere in the reporting results.

It was just an odd commercial. 'Out in right field' odd? I would say not even in the same ballpark odd. Good, bad? Let's see if they follow-up with continuing advertising to build upon the Super Bowl plug. For the benefit of us all, I hope so.

Would write the same if it was an ATC ad.

I still don't understand the connection people make between an ad being "highly amusing or creative" and being "successful". The Cars.com ads were indeed average as far as creativity goes, but frankly they can't lose whenever they advertise because their domain name pretty much gets the message across on its own.

You want to find cars online? Cars.com. No marketing shpiel, no 30-second story... we got cars, the website is Cars.com, have a nice day.

I'd say that the small amount of creativity that did go into the ads actually took away from their effectiveness. I would've preferred the logo on black for 30 seconds and a voice-over, or a demo of the site. Not only is it unnecessary to tap into people emotionally when you're Cars.com, it's actually a marketing misfire.

It's a product's job to generate emotional ties to the consumer - Audi and Bud Light's ads were done appropriately, putting more concern behind an emotional tie than the actual product. But Cars.com isn't a product... it's a consumer resource, one step above newspaper advertising, and you all know what dealers put out in print ads: total garbage with big bright words like BLOWOUT and $99/MO. It's crap, and it works(when there's actually eyeballs to read it), because that's the level the customer is on when they open a newspaper. You have to know where your brand hits the customer mentally, and pitch your ads accordingly.

Whether or not Cars.com's ads made people laugh is of no importance whatsoever... their name was up there, and Autotrader's wasn't... that's all that matters. Let's not forget the notorious tendencies of people to remember the ads more than the companies who paid for them when there are similar brands running spots. I've heard a handful of people incorrectly attribute the Amp soft drink spot to Pepsi Max and vice versa. It's vital on Superbowl spots to be the only representative of your industry.

Absolutely positively…Awful…..they should stick to newspapers!

Alex,
I'll be there till monday eve. Saturday should work, Toss me an email and I'll get you my cell#.

Anybody else to NADA that want's to be in on the "call around" list, email me your name, comp., position and cell#.

We all got packed schedules, but you never know!

email me:
joe[dot]pistell[at]usedcarking[dot]com

Joe, I'll be flying in Sat. afternoon. I have a booked schedule but would love to meet up with everyone. Saturday night would be my best bet. Alex, are you going to be at the VADA?

Mobile: 240-217-1740

P.S. Sorry for not posting something about NADA this year but I know we will all have something to write about then I get back!

Mitch - With most Internet users comfortable with using search engines now, I wonder if they search as general as they used to?

My thoughts are that someone in my market are more likely now to type in "kansas city cars" than just "cars". Maybe that's why Cars.com agressively targets my local keywords too.


To all -
I'll have to make it to next year's DearlerRefresh.com MeetUp 2009. Have a good time.

My son showed me this. I think it's part of cars.com. I don't know what they are thinking with this.

http://cars.com/waitingroom/

that site took a little time to pull off

To reply to Jeff's comments, I agree do a comparison in a few weeks to see your results from last month to this month. I am confident that you will see an increase. Since the Super Bowl our traffic has increased 20%.

"Let's see if they follow-up with continuing advertising to build upon the Super Bowl plug. For the benefit of us all, I hope so."

Not to worry, the Super Bowl was just the beginning of our $200 million advertising campaign for 2008. Immediately after the game we have continued with our advertising. This month alone we will be running almost 500 30-second commercials on top-rated networks such as ESPN, TNT, TBS, Comedy Central and Discovery Channel. In addition to that we have been running banner advertisements on popular online websites such as Yahoo, ESPN.com, FoxSports.com, CBSSports.com, NFL.com and SuperBowl.com.

This month is just the beginning. If you don't know who or what Cars.com is you will.

Hope everyone has a great time at NADA. Have a safe trip.

-Ruby, Cars.com

Thanks Ruby for your detailed response. Will be watching for ongoing results from the campaign in the dealership reports. Also...

Looking forward to the great articles written post NADA on DealerRefresh that help keep us all up to date on the latest and greatest in the biz!

The thing that stood out the most to me is there was no increase in activity from Cars.com the week after the game. None what so ever and this is from a number of clients I work with.

Like auto trader and others, the gig is up for their providing the solution of delivery of customers to the store, at least in this economy. it is back to the old stand by, building customer loyalty and relationships with great service, sharp pricing strategies, catering to the customer's needs and finding that niche consumer who is doing well in this economy and can/will afford the purchase of a new vehicle.

This down cycle will probably last another 18 months or longer if we are faced with an another successful terrorist attack. I think Cars.com will wish they had that 2.6 million to cushion the economic impact and shortage of cash which is on the horizon.

Hey, the executives I am sure enjoyed the comp tickets for the game, the parties and had a chance to play with the big boys for a week so not all the effort was wasted.

The thing that stood out the most to me is there was no increase in activity from Cars.com the week after the game. None what so ever and this is from a number of clients I work with.

Like auto trader and others, the gig is up for their providing the solution of delivery of customers to the store, at least in this economy. it is back to the old stand by, building customer loyalty and relationships with great service, sharp pricing strategies, catering to the customer's needs and finding that niche consumer who is doing well in this economy and can/will afford the purchase of a new vehicle.

This down cycle will probably last another 18 months or longer if we are faced with an another successful terrorist attack. I think Cars.com will wish they had that 2.6 million to cushion the economic impact and shortage of cash which is on the horizon.

Hey, the executives I am sure enjoyed the comp tickets for the game, the parties and had a chance to play with the big boys for a week so not all the effort was wasted.

"Like auto trader and others, the gig is up for their providing the solution of delivery of customers to the store, at least in this economy"

I agree with this. We have been experiencing much more ROI from targeted local SEM. Is the internet classified model changed that significantly in the past 2 year period? Have others experienced this?

Lao,

What market do you work in? In Hampton Roads, VA the Cars.com participating dealers (as a group) have seen a 37% increase in the amount of calls to their dealerships and a 22% increase in the amount of emails. This doesn't even include the increase in traffic to their websites and the "print the ad/write down the info" walk-in customers. I just use phone calls and emails because we are typically only judged by those conversion rates. I'm pulling data from the first 11 days of January 2008 versus the first 11 days of February 2008 in Hampton Roads. That shows a significant increase in traffic the week after the game. I bet this increase in traffic only grows since the Super Bowl was just the beginning of a $200 million 2008 Cars.com advertising/branding campaign.

Quick update...

Month to date compared to Jan 08 and Feb 07 on all relative stats I listed previously: down 10% - 20%

Maybe Im just in a market area similar to Lao's. Will update soon with precise numbers.