In or Out, Automakers Bet Big on Super Bowl
By Dale Buss January 31, 2011
There's a flock of automotive participants planning television ads for the Super Bowl. Others are sitting out the game like a bird on a wire. Either way, automakers are placing a huge Super Bowl bet.
Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Kia and Volkswagen each is wagering that paying as much as $3 million for 30-second spots during the telecast of Super Bowl XLV on Fox will build momentum behind new-product launches, restore some luster to their brands - or both.
On the other hand, Ford, Toyota, Nissan and Honda are sitting out the game telecast from northern Texas. And in its own way, each of those companies is taking a significant risk by staying away from the Super Bowl-advertising derby.
Each automaker obviously has made its Super Bowl choice to reflect its own marketing strategy for 2011. But there's no denying that, overall, Super Bowl advertising is set to return to a more pivotal role for the auto industry than it has enjoyed since at least 2008.
"The auto business has had such a turbulent last couple of years that it feels like this year - compared with the last two Super Bowls - is the first time they're ready to jump in with optimistic messages to show the country they're back, and to put a bit of momentum behind their recent sales gains," said Liz Vanzura, chief marketing officer for MMB Advertising, in Boston, and former CMO of Cadillac.
No Template
What's more, added Rebecca Lindland, automakers are simply feeling "more like they can" this year. For the last two years, said the director of strategic review for IHS Automotive, a Lexington, Mass.-based consulting firm, "every single move was scrutinized" because General Motors and Chrysler were in deep recovery mode and the industry was moribund.
The chief of a leading auto-marketing firm concurred. "The higher interest is a signal that things are recovering a bit," he said. "The last couple of years there was almost an 'anti' sentiment against large media buys. Almost like it was irresponsible. Now there's a signal that we're back and bigger."
There's no one template for their decisions about Super Bowl ads. The reasons that eight automakers so far - two more than last year - have said "yes" to Super Bowl XLV include the obvious one: that more than 100 million Americans are expected to watch the game telecast, many of those for the primary purpose of seeing the commercials.
And year after year, even after the rise of online advertising and social-media marketing, the Super Bowl has continued to provide one of the most effective stages for car companies to make a big statement about a brand or product.
"It's a platform for new products, trends and directions for a brand," said Joe Kyriakoza, vice president of marketing and insights for Jumpstart, an online auto-marketing portal. He cited two ads from the 2009 Super Bowl as examples: the spot introducing Hyundai's "Assurance" incentive program in the depths of the Great Recession, and Audi's ad for the new R8 that used a Godfather theme to make an anti-establishment statement about European luxury brands.
Kia was so pleased with the impact of its first-ever Super Bowl ad last year that it is returning to Super Bowl XLV. "For the money we spent, and our return on investment, it paid off really well - before the game, during the game, and in buzz after the game," said Michael Sprague, Kia's U.S. vice president of marketing.
Harmonizing with the Internet
Yet a third - and growing - factor drawing car marketers to the Super Bowl is the clear relationship that has developed between products in the ads and consumers going online to find out more about them, on the night of the game as well as for days and even weeks afterward. "There's a wonderful connection now between the Super Bowl and its ability to drag people online," said the agency head.
And yet a fourth reason for greater automotive interest in the Super Bowl this year is an intramural one: A handful of car brands have switched ad agencies. They include Chevrolet, whose agency of record now is Goodby Silverstein; Chrysler, which awarded each of its brands to separate new agencies after dropping BBDO as its corporate shop; and BMW, which just selected Grey as its new U.S. regional agency of record.
"Some of the Super Bowl stuff could be an agency ploy," said the agency chief. "You know, 'We're going to get on the map here.' It might not be totally about what's best for the client."
Automakers that have opted out of this year's Big Game have their individual reasons, of course, but the commonality is that they don't want or need to say anything big right now.
Eight's a Crowd
There's also the reality that the Super Bowl remains a huge gamble. "Get it right, and you've probably really accomplished something," said Cameron McNaughton, who blogs on auto marketing at AutoPerspectives.com. "But if you get it wrong, that's a lot of money to spend to not get noticed."
And non-participant OEMs may have hesitated because the game seemed to be getting too crowded with other automakers, not only in terms of numbers but also because several of them have bought multiple ad spots. What's more, tire makers, car insurers and other auto-related brands also typically advertise during the Super Bowl.
"I'm not sure what the right number is, but if you've got 10 car-related companies in the Super Bowl, probably only half are going to stand out, at most, and the others will just drown among the other spots," Kyriakoza said.
Here's a company-by-company look at the automotive Super Bowl players, and the holdouts:
Players
Chevrolet: New CMO Joel Ewanick has been saying for months that the Super Bowl will witness the crescendo of his efforts to re-brand Chevrolet that only began with the new campaign in the fall, "Chevy Runs Deep."
"It's important because you don't have many opportunities like the Super Bowl," Ewanick said, "and we really want to use it to continue the conversation we started in the fall. We'll add another layer to it.
"People watch the Super Bowl and walk away, and it's difficult for them not to put Chevrolet on their shopping list, at least."
Chevrolet will have about a half-dozen spots for its spiel, although it may use some of its slots to run the same ad twice, said Kevin Mayer, Chevy's director of advertising.
Super Bowl timing also benefits Chevy because the Volt extended-range hybrid has just been introduced and will be highly topical; Cruze was launched in the fall; and Chevrolet will be debuting a Camaro convertible in the spring. GM will award a Camaro convertible to the Super Bowl game's Most Valuable Player.
"We see the Super Bowl this year as a platform, a runway, to talk about the great news that we have as a brand," Mayer said.
The rival ad-agency head hopes, for Chevy's sake, that GM's spots are heavy on specific models and light on Chevrolet branding per se. "The initial 'Chevy Runs Deep' advertising seemed kind of rookie-ish, with lots of cliches," he said. "They should be aiming for the coolest Volt or Cruze spot."
Chrysler: The company wouldn't say officially, but it looks pretty clear that the Dodge brand will be getting some attention in the company's Super Bowl spots. Dodge CEO Ralph Gilles indicated as much in an e-mail to dealers obtained in December by Automotive News, urging them to order their allocations of 2011 vehicles. The brand returned to the Super Bowl in 2010 after a five-year absence and is launching more new or revamped vehicles in 2011, more than any of Chrysler's other brands.
Outsiders suggest that Chrysler also should promote products such as its revamped Chrysler 300 and new Chrysler 200 -- a re-skinned Sebring - or tout its strong-selling new Jeep Cherokee, or stoke the Ram truck franchise that has been dependable lately, or tease the arrival later this year of an Americanized version of the Fiat 500 small car.
In fact, the best point for Chrysler to make might well be the variety of new or improved products that it finally is introducing after two years of practically no new sheet-metal. "I would do a portfolio play and say, 'Here's evidence of our journey on the way back,'" said the ad-agency chief.In any event, even if only Dodge takes center stage during the Super Bowl, Kyriakoza said that Chrysler "needs to be big and bold and front-and-center again to the American consumer, as a company that's real again and has staying power."
Hyundai: The Korean upstart brand tipped the industry on its ear in the Super Bowl two years ago with its "Assurance," campaign, promising to let consumers out of their purchase or lease deals if they subsequently lost their jobs. Last year, Hyundai focused on new products such as Sonata. For the last two years, the brand has been picking up big chunks of market share in the U.S.
This year, Hyundai already has said its approach will focus on demonstrating that compact cars don't have to be stark and cramped and will offer its new 2011 Elantra and Sonata as alternatives. The company plans to tout at least the Elantra in its three spots during this year's game -- one more than a year ago.
"They need to keep the fire hot" with their Super Bowl ads "and not let someone come in and upstage them," said George Cook, a marketing professor at the University of Rochester and an erstwhile Ford marketing hand. "Hyundai actually has a lot to lose if they're not prominent."
For the first time, Hyundai also purchased ad time and launched its Super Bowl-related campaign before the game itself. The company said that ads for Elantra, for example, such as during the AFC Divisional Championship game on January 23, would help build "suspense" toward its ads on Super Bowl Sunday.
All that Hyundai has said so far is that it will use some portion of its three spots during the game - one more than it bought in 2010 - to tout its new 2011 Elantra compact car. The company also plans a number of other vehicle introductions in coming months.
Volkswagen: Volkswagen's Super Bowl ads traditionally have done an effective job of projecting the brand's quirky personality and using humor to appeal to the GenY and GenX consumers that are the targets for its budget-friendly vehicle lineup. Expect much of the same this time around, predicted Kyriakoza.
Specifically, Volkswagen has revealed that it will showcase the 2012 Passat, likely a platform for touting its return to U.S. production with assembly of the vehicle at its new plant in Tennessee. VW also said that it would promote its next-generation Beetle - the same one whose basic exterior design was unveiled in an episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show late last year - in its other Super Bowl spot.
Should Volkswagen use the Super Bowl to give popular voice to its ambitions for global industry leadership that have been expressed frequently over the last year? The ad-agency chief was dismissive. "That's just car-manufacturer rhetoric," he said. "VW is smart enough to know that the average consumer doesn't care about that stuff."
Mercedes-Benz: The company has been reminding Americans in advertisements lately that it invented the car 125 years ago, but reportedly it plans to abandon the "heritage" route in the one 60-second spot it has purchased during the fourth quarter. It will be the brand's first appearance in Super Bowl spot.
Mercedes will push a younger, hipper image during the spot by featuring sporty new models such as the SLS supercar and the new C-Class Coupe. The company also is sponsoring a social-media event connected with the Super Bowl, on Twitter, that features a C-Class as the prize at the end of a road-rally type of race to Cowboys Stadium among four two-person teams from points around the country.
But Mercedes-Benz also could have touted tout the fact that it gave Lexus a run for its money in 2011."We're up nearly 20 percent [in annual sales for 2010] and want to ride that wave," spokeswoman Donna Boland told Automotive News. Kyriakoza suggested that Mercedes-Benz should include some green messaging "because they're starting to turn the brand more eco-friendly than luxury-toy."
BMW: The brand plans to return to the Super Bowl after an absence of a decade, and there's one main reason. "We chose it as a platform because we're in the middle of the biggest launch cycle ever in the company's history, so we want the Super Bowl for exposure - and to carry the momentum that we've gained in the last half" of 2010, spokeswoman Stacy Morris said.
It seems certain that, in one of its two Super Bowl spots, BMW will feature its revamped X3 SUV that it builds in South Carolina. The company launched a Facebook contest around the commercial for this model a few days ago. BMW seems likely to tout the fact that the new X3 SUV can be purchased on a "build-to-order" basis.
Among candidates for BMW's other spot could be the ActiveE prototype all-electric vehicle that BMW plans to bring to regions of the U.S. this summer. "That's the prevailing message they [could] use," Kyriakoza said, "in the context of the evolution of their brand [and] the innovations they're creating. They need to stand out."
Audi: The Volkswagen luxury brand will try to build on momentum that has seen it gain market share in the U.S. in 2009 and 2010. It plans to feature the flagship 2011 Audi A8. The company released a "teaser" ad earlier this month to hype its return to the Super Bowl, titled "Goodnight" - an attempt to bash "old luxury" brands by borrowing from the soporific cadence and rhyme scheme of the children's classic book, Goodnight Moon, and pose the technologically advanced A8 as a more exciting alternative.
Audi first took an implied jab at BMW and Mercedes-Benz in its spot promoting the R8, which was considered an advertising highlight of the 2009 Super Bowl. And, and in 2010 Audi came up with the "Green Police" ad that cleverly positioned its own Turbo Direct Injection clean-diesel vehicles as environmentally beneficial. "Audi are the guys to watch for," McNaughton said, "because they have consistently done a great job with their Super Bowl ads."
Vanzura believes that Audi's Super Bowl performances, in fact, have been a significant factor in how the brand has gained traction in the U.S. lately. "Regardless of the economy," she said, "Audi has been using the Super Bowl to showcase product innovation, and they've got a positive halo because of it. Rather than retracting when the economy has been bad, they have been showing that they're a leader."
Kia: Hyundai's secondary brand in the U.S. will be trying to steal a page from Hyundai's playbook with its second consecutive Super Bowl appearance. It will use the game for the marketing launch of the 2011 Optima, which Kia already has been seeding with a promotion in the fall with the National Basketball Association, and with in-theater advertising that it began in December.
"One Epic Ride," Kia's spot during the first quarter of the game on February 6, will feature "people across space and time [who] will go to great lengths to snatch the all-new Optima from the clutches of others and put themselves behind the wheel," the company said.
In the 2010 game, Kia's spot for the Sorrento CUV, featuring animated stuffed animals, was memorable. And Kia has followed up that offbeat approach with more humor in the last year, such as a campaign that showed animatronic hamsters driving its Soul.
"Our approach for the brand is to want to be seen as fun and entertaining and as something you want to be associated with," Sprague said. "We don't want to take ourselves too seriously. It's also a chance to let people know that we're a brand on the rise and we can play with the big boys."
Non-Participants
Toyota: The company made no Super Bowl plans and declined to explain why. But it's obvious that the entire Toyota brand brain trust is scrambling to figure out how to position a once-indomitable marque that has been so tarnished by safety recalls over the past year.
Plus, about the only imminent product news for Toyota right now is an extension of its Prius lineup, and conventional hybrids are taking a back seat in the green conversation these days to Volt and Nissan Leaf.
So Toyota is following the adage that if it doesn't have something nice to say - especially about itself - then it shouldn't say anything at all.
"If there were a silver bullet that they could use in the Super Bowl to suddenly repair their reputation, it might be worth doing," McNaughton said. "But there is no silver bullet. They've got a lot of work to do first before they're ready to talk about it. One-shot marketing like the Super Bowl isn't going to solve their problems."
The ad-agency chief agreed that Toyota "has so many problems that it's a good idea for them not to be in it. Besides, one ad isn't going to get it done. They have to get trust back, block by block and tackle by tackle."
Kyriakoza said that Toyota "needs to get their ducks in a row before really re-presenting themselves to the American consumer. They've already tried to do that and then had more [safety-recall] setbacks" in 2010, and "it's really been damaging for their brand."
Yet Cook believes that "out of sight, out of mind" might hurt Toyota regardless. And Vanzura was a bit surprised. "I'm surprising they're not coming into the game with a strictly positive brand message."
Ford: CMO Jim Farley has been vocal about his skepticism concerning the value of Super Bowl advertising in general and resolute about Ford's non-participation this year. The company will be among the last advertisers during Fox's pre-game show but won't step over the line with an in-game spot.
The basic reason is that Ford - riding high with rising market share, a solid product lineup across the board, and the general goodwill of American consumers - simply doesn't need to participate in the Super Bowl. Moreover, it has been making big gains lately in other marketing venues, especially social media.
"The bottom line in [Farley's] mind [is] properties like the Super Bowl are great if you want to raise awareness, if you want to be seen and simply get your name out," said Ford spokesman Mark Schirmer. "We are beyond that." At this point, Schirmer explained, Ford would rather focus on telling parts of its "story" that are "pretty involved" and don't lend themselves to the simplicity required by Big Game ads.
Professor Cook believes that Ford "could have a lot to lose" by refraining from the Super Bowl, especially if arch-rival Chevrolet manages to score big with its participation.
But other independent experts consulted by Edmunds.com was that Ford's non-gambit is the right play. "The Super Bowl is best for a company that is seeking maximum awareness about something, and that's not Ford's need," said the ad-agency chief.
And the less-expensive pre-game buy still makes Ford part of the broader Super Bowl conversation. "It's hard to fault them," Vanzura said. "So far, lately, they've always been in the right place at the right time."
Nissan: The company is the only one of the Japanese Big Three to have gained market share in 2010, but Nissan apparently doesn't believe a Super Bowl appearance can add to that momentum. "Nissan isn't there but probably could benefit from being in the Super Bowl," Kyriakoza said.
But there's the fact that the considerable buzz around its Leaf all-electric vehicle - which is just hitting U.S. showrooms now - likely will be enough to keep Nissan part of the overall car-marketing conversation well into 2011.
Nissan spokesman Brian Brockman declined to comment.
Honda: Honda's miserable 2010 in the U.S. didn't get much attention only because Toyota's troubles were so much worse. But Honda, too, had a spate of safety recalls and lost market share. The company declined to comment on its 2011 Super Bowl decision.
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