Some interesting data on auto manufacturer advertising was released by comScore earlier this week, including several surprising statistics related to SUVs and green vehicles.
This particular study measured online advertising among auto manufacturers during January of 2009. Results were broken down into the following categories:
1. the top advertisers overall
2. the most advertised SUVs
3. the most advertised “Green” vehicles
ComScore data showed that auto manufacturing companies combined for more than 1.9 billion ad impressions during 01/2009, reaching 120 million people (65% of the total Internet audience). And who would you guess was the leader? Ford Motor Company, which alone had a whopping 480 million display ads. Close behind was Toyota with 384 million, GM with 316 million, Mercedes-Benz with 265 million, and Honda which showed 163 million ads. Ford, GM, & Chrysler combined for 26% of January auto advertising, while the top 10 auto companies accounted for 58%.
More interesting to me were the numbers that came out of comScore’s new Ad Metrix product dictionary, which allows them to actually identify online advertisements right down to specific products.
The first surprise was that although there were 9.9 million display ads shown for Fuel Efficient/Hybrid models that month, there were 65 million ads shown for sport utility vehicles (SUVs). That means that every time we saw an ad for a hybrid vehicle, we saw 6 or 7 for non-hybrid SUVs.
That was a little hard to believe, given all the print and television advertising I see for green vehicles. It seems that you can’t open a magazine or turn on the TV without seeing a hybrid ad…but apparently more online advertising is still going toward the gas guzzling models. At the top of the list was the GMC Yukon, winning the distinction of most advertised SUV in January, 2009 (online). I wonder how the hybrid Yukon faired?
In case you’re wondering, rounding out the top 5 most advertised SUVs were the KIA Borrego, Toyota Sequoia, Toyota Highlander, and Ford Flex.
The most advertised green vehicle wasn’t a hybrid SUV at all, but was instead the hybrid Chevy Malibu. It was followed in order by the Lexus LS, Honda Civic, Toyota Prius, and Lexus RX. Jeff Hackett, a senior VP at comScore noted, “The collective online advertising strategy of automakers shows a low level of online advertising for their green models and higher levels for their heavier gas consumption vehicles. While SUVs may still drive a larger share of sales for the automakers, comScore research has shown that online is an effective brand-building medium and now might be a good time to begin shifting allocation of dollars and mind share towards the models of the future.”
While these numbers came as a bit of a surprise to me, they are what I would have expected a year or two ago. Where I live, mall and grocery store parking lots are still dominated by large SUVs, even after months of $4-$5 a gallon gasoline and what seems like a lot of green advertising in general. And here’s the kicker. The nearly 2 billion online ads displayed by car companies in January of 2009 was actually a 43% decrease from January of 2008.
