As the year comes to a close, automakers have primarily shifted their national TV advertising to focus on their winter sales events. Sales event creatives began to appear in November and continued to debut after Black Friday. Given December has the highest sales volume of the year for autos and sees some of the highest TV ad spending, there is no time to waste to maximize your campaign’s efficacy with just a few weeks left to hit 2020 sales targets.
This report contains brand and campaign-level performance data for non-luxury automakers’ Winter Sales Event advertising on national TV since November 26, 2020. The color-coding in the table below shows how campaigns are performing compared to the industry average.
EDO can help you make live creative rotation optimizations for your brand to drive more consumer engagement during this critical sales period.
WSE Campaign Overview
Search Engagement Volume (SEV) represents the increase in online search for a brand or product above the expected baseline in the minutes following a TV ad airing.
Search Engagement Rate (SER), indicated by color-coding above, controls for both audience size and ad duration, enabling an apples-to-apples comparison of the effectiveness of each brand’s TV campaign.
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Toyota (#1) has maintained the greatest level of total Search Engagement Volume (SEV) since November 26th while doubling airings and impressions YoY for its Toyotathon Sales Event campaign.
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Both Ford (#2) and Subaru (#3) have increased their WSE impressions by 60+% compared to the same sales event period last year. Subaru, notably, has also run the greatest number of impressions in the industry (1.99B) so far. Both brands have also seen a 30-40% increase in SEV YoY.
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Jeep (#5) has shifted into first gear as the brand has driven the fifth-highest level of Total SEV and continues to outperform the industry average at driving Search Engagement with its WSE ads on a per-second, per-person basis.
Creative Performance
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This week demonstrated the power of audio in creative. A viewer of the Mazda spot 2020 Season of Inspiration SE (0% APR Offer) has been 9% less likely to search for Mazda in the minutes following an airing than a viewer of 2020 Season of Inspiration SE – Mazda CX-30 (0% APR Offer). Though the two spots are visually identical, they have different audio.
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Buick has seen varying levels of success with its S(YOU)V Holiday campaign. A viewer of the brand’s Envision Essence offer has been 26% more likely to engage online with Buick than a viewer of the Enclave offer.
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After concluding its 2020 Black Friday Sales Event, GMC switched over to its Season to Upgrade SE campaign. A viewer of the top-performing Season to Upgrade SE spot, 2020 Season to Upgrade SE – Gift Like a Pro (Sierra 1500 Offer), has been 64% more likely to search for GMC than a viewer of 2020 Black Friday SE – One For You, One For Me (Sierra Offer).
WSE Creative Tracker
Buick
2020 Celebrate the Holidays SE – S(You)V Holiday (Envision Essence Offer)
116 SER 46.0M Impressions, 101 Airings
2020 Buick Friday SE – S(You)V Holiday (APR Offer)
98 SER, 91.4M Impressions, 209 Airings
2020 Celebrate the Holidays SE – S(You)V Holiday (Encore Offer)
95 SER, 117.4M Impressions, 243 Airings
2020 Celebrate the Holidays SE – S(You)V Holiday (Enclave Offer)
93 SER, 64.6M Impressions, 163 Airings
Chevrolet
2020 Employee Discount for Everyone SE – Giving (Silverado Offer)
104 SER, 272.9M Impressions, 519 Airings
2020 Employee Discount for Everyone SE – Wherever You Go (Equinox Offer)
97 SER, 308.7M Impressions, 545 Airings
Ford
2020 Built for the Holidays SE – Joy (0% APR Offer)
137 SER, 42.2M Impressions, 27 Airings
2020 Built For the Holidays SE – Running of the Santas (Offer) :30
132 SER, 148.7M Impressions, 80 Airings
2020 Built For the Holidays SE – Running of the Santas :30
93 SER, 303.9M Impressions, 296 Airings
GMC
2020 Season to Upgrade SE – Gift Like a Pro (Sierra 1500 Offer)
125 SER, 159.3M Impressions, 149 Airings
2020 Season to Upgrade SE – One For You, One For Me (Acadia Offer)
93 SER, 241.8M Impressions, 487 Airings
2020 Black Friday SE – One For You, One For Me (Acadia Offer)
92 SER, 114.4M Impressions, 130 Airings
2020 Black Friday SE – One For You, One For Me (Sierra Offer)
76 SER, 11.4M Impressions, 30 Airings
Honda
2020 Happy Honda Days SE (CR-V Offer)
95.7M Impressions, 19 Airings
Jeep
2020 Big Finish SE – Hero’s Journey (Grand Cherokee $1,000 Bonus Cash Offer) :30
121 SER, 54.4M Impressions, 243 Airings
2020 Big Finish SE – One of Our Own (Gladiator Offer) :30
112 SER, 41.1M Impressions, 155 Airings
2020 Big Finish SE – Hero’s Journey (Gladiator Offer)
112 SER, 197.7M Impressions, 644 Airings
2020 Big Finish SE – Hero’s Journey (Grand Cherokee Offer)
109 SER, 169.3M Impressions, 520 Airings
2020 Big Finish SE – One of Our Own (Grand Cherokee Offer) :30
104 SER, 179.5M Impressions, 494 Airings
2020 Black Friday SE – What Makes Jeep? (Grand Cherokee Offer) :30
98 SER, 3.2M Impressions, 24 Airings
2020 Black Friday SE – Hero’s Journey (Gladiator MSRP Offer)
93 SER, 104.9M Impressions, 286 Airings
2020 Big Finish SE – What Makes Jeep? (Grand Cherokee Offer)
90 SER, 8.6M Impressions, 62 Airings
2020 Black Friday SE – Hero’s Journey (Grand Cherokee MSRP Offer)
89 SER, 124.9M Impressions, 327 Airings
2020 Black Friday SE – Looking Forward (2021 Compass Offer)
86 SER, 175.1M Impressions, 465 Airings
2020 Big Finish SE – One of Our Own (Cherokee Offer) :30
83 SER, 96.5M Impressions, 241 Airings
2020 Big Finish SE – Home (Grand Cherokee Offer)
53 SER, 23.0M Impressions, 30 Airings
Kia
2020 Command the Season SE – Take on Winter (APR Offer) :30
** SER, 555.4M Impressions, 704 Airings
2020 Command the Season SE – Take on Winter (APR Offer) :15
** SER, 104.4M Impressions, 142 Airings
Mazda
Season of Inspiration SE (CX-30 0% APR Offer)
106 SER, 252.0M Impressions, 388 Airings
2020 Season of Inspiration SE (0% APR Offer)
97 SER, 592.7M Impressions, 904 Airings
RAM
2020 Big Finish SE – At Our Best: Three-Peat (1500 Bonus Cash Offer)
112 SER, 32.7M Impressions, 143 Airings
America’s Most Loyal (Black Friday SE Offer)
111 SER, 232.6M Impressions, 422 Airings
2020 Big Finish SE – At Our Best: Three-Peat (1500 Offer)
109 SER, 213.3M Impressions, 620 Airings
2020 Big Finish SE – At Our Best: Three-Peat (1500 MSRP + $500 Bonus Cash Offer)
79 SER, 128.7M Impressions, 232 Airings
2020 Big Finish SE – MotorTrend Three-Peat: Never Been Done Before (1500 Offer)
78 SER, 78.7M Impressions, 204 Airings
2020 Big Finish SE – At Our Best: Three-Peat (3500 MSRP Offer)
76 SER, 19.1M Impressions, 101 Airings
Subaru
Share the Love SE – Anthem :30
103 SER, 657.7M Impressions, 1,424 Airings
Share the Love SE – Hometown Faces (0% APR Offer) :30
102 SER, 643.3M Impressions, 1,358 Airings
Share the Love SE – Faces of Love (0% APR Offer) :30
93 SER, 672.8M Impressions, 1,350 Airings
Toyota
2020 Toyotathon Is On! SE – That’s A Wrap (ToyotaCare Offer) :15
** SER, 9.2M Impressions, 16 Airings
2020 Toyotathon Is On! SE – Unwrapping (ToyotaCare Offer) :30
** SER, 61.2M Impressions, 79 Airings
2020 Toyotathon Is On! SE – Unwrapping (0% APR Camry Offer) :30
** SER, 143.5M Impressions, 223 Airings
2020 Toyotathon Is On! SE – Workshop (ToyotaCare Offer) :30
** SER, 40.2M Impressions, 125 Airings
2020 Toyotathon Is On! SE – That’s A Wrap (0% APR Camry Offer) :15
** SER, 44.8M Impressons, 55 Airings
Bring the Love Home this Holiday :30
** SER, 426.8M Impressions, 681 Airings
2020 Toyotathon Is On! SE – Better Than Mistletoe (0% APR Camry Offer) :15
** SER, 47.6M Impressions, 46 Airings
2020 Toyotathon Is On! SE – Better Than Mistletoe (ToyotaCare Offer) :15
** SER, 5.8M Impressions, 11 Airings
2020 Toyotathon Is On! SE – Workshop (0% APR Camry Offer) :30
** SER, 53.2M Impressions, 104 Airings
Volkswagen
2020 Sign Then Drive SE – Zero Hassles (Jetta Offer)
** SER, 134.5M Impressions, 89 Airings
For each advertiser, SER Index is benchmarked separately so that the average SER Index across all airings represented for the advertiser is 100.
** Client data is suppressed.