GM tops the winners of the Super Bowl ads among automakers
The tens of millions of dollars that General Motors and Stellantis spent to advertise during Sunday night's big game got attention from car shoppers, according to online car shopping resource Edmunds.com.
The vehicles and brands featured by GM and Stellantis saw spikes in consumer traffic to Edmunds’ website following the splashy ads during the game. Edmunds also reports a lift in the share of traffic viewing Kia's Telluride SUV after the South Korean carmaker ran its ad. Ford Motor Co. did not advertise in the Super Bowl.
GM, in a partnership with Netflix, kicked off the automotive ads with a second quarter spot starring actor Will Ferrell called, “Why not an EV?” It featured GM's EV lineup in cameos in various Netflix shows. For example, Ferrell picks up a runaway bride in a GMC Hummer EV in a snippet from "Love is Blind" and he walks arm-in-arm with a woman in 1800s-era England to a Cadillac Lyriq in a scene from "Bridgerton."
GM CMO Deborah Wahl told the Free Press in an email Monday that, “While some ads are simply a moment in time, this Super Bowl we’ve launched a movement that places EVs into the epicenter of modern culture. We continue to see the benefits of announcing this movement on the world’s largest stage.”
GM did not immediately provide data reflecting increases in traffic to its websites from the ad, but GM spokeswoman Anne Roberts said Google reported a spike in searches for EVs in general. She said like Google and Edmunds, "we also see an increase in traffic directly tied to our Super Bowl efforts."
Ford opts out as competitors tout EVs
Stellantis aired a 60-second ad in the second quarter featuring its electrified Wrangler and Grand Cherokee 4xe in its "Electric Boogie" spot. It introduced its RAM 1500 REV in its "Premature Electrification" spot in the middle of the fourth quarter.
Stellantis spokeswoman Diane Morgan said the automaker saw "a significant increase to total site visits on the Ram Trucks brand side (RamTrucks.com and RamREV.com) far exceeding the January daily average." The company also saw significant increases on Jeep brand's site traffic. Jeep Wrangler had its strongest visit volume in the last 12 months, with concentration tied to the 4xe electric plug-in nameplate and Grand Cherokee also saw the model's highest volume of site visits in last four months.
“EVs were clearly the big theme this year and although brands are shining a spotlight on future products rather than advertising what they might currently be selling, this makes sense in light of the supply shortages and the importance of electrification to automakers’ future viability," said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ executive director of insights, in a statement.
Ford CEO Jim Farley told analysts in June that it is better to spend money on updating vehicles to win customer loyalty than on pricey Super Bowl ads.
"If you ever see Ford Motor Co. doing a Super Bowl ad on our electric vehicles, sell the stock," Farley said.
Pragmatic approach given the price
Caldwell said it is understandable that many automakers chose to not advertise during the game. The Super Bowl does a lot to boost product and brand awareness, but given the cost to advertise on such a large scale, "other brands are likely taking a bit more of a pragmatic approach by waiting until they have a lot more metal to move, or until market conditions become a bit more favorable.”
Fox, which aired the game, asked between $6 million and $7 million for a 30-second spot, Variety reported in late January. Fox reportedly had sold nearly all of its spots by September with several topping $7 million, Variety reported.
"The limited pool of automakers that threw their EV advertising dollars into the Super Bowl arena this year are making a strategic decision to enhance their reputations as being strong EV producers," Caldwell said. "We saw what this reputation did to Tesla's market cap, so flexing these muscles is likely also geared toward pleasing Wall Street as well as driving mainstream consumer interest."
Edmunds traffic highlight
Edmunds calculated the increases to its website traffic by looking at unique visits to make or model pages after a commercial aired. It took the highest peak in traffic to those pages and compared it with average January traffic levels for those pages to come up with the increase.
In GM's ad: Cadillac Lyriq, Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Hummer EV saw lifts of 160%, 6,970% and 1,374% respectively over their typical shares on Edmunds. GMC Sierra Denali EV and Chevrolet Blazer EV did not record an immediate lift.
Cadillac's brand share increased by 117%, Chevrolet's brand share increased by 62%, and GMC's brand share increased by 117% over each of their respective typical shares.
Jeep Wrangler 4xe saw a site share lift of 1,560%. Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe saw a site share lift of 319%.
Jeep brand saw a lift of 182% over its typical site share.
Kia's ad "Binky Dad" helped boost site shares of the Telluride by 122%.
The Kia brand saw a 1% over its typical site share.
RAM 1500 REV is a new vehicle so Edmunds did not have comparative data.
RAM brand saw a 90% lift over its typical site share.
More:Super Bowl ads for Stellantis reveal electric Ram, Jeep's Electric Slide
More:Magna to add jobs at Michigan plant after winning GM Silverado EV business
Contact Jamie L. LaReau: jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: GM's Super Bowl ad results dominated compared with other automakers
