Study By Dataium Shows BMW Wins Super Bowl Ad Wars

Dataium, LLC, an automotive buyer behavior analytics company, today released its Promotional Impact Charts (PIC) for Super Bowl automotive advertisers. The company measured shopping, inventory search, and lead activity of over 3 million active auto shoppers during the Super Bowl, at the precise times each of the automotive manufacturers’ television spots were broadcast. The resulting statistics clearly indicate BMW’s Super Bowl commercials delivered the greatest impact for their local dealerships. It should be noted that in every instance, but Hyundai, commercials that ran prior to kickoff, generated better performance metrics for their respective local dealership websites, than those commercials that ran during the game.

As expected, the Super Bowl’s impact on overall online auto shopping was negative, with a -24% decline in shopper activity at the start of the game, but online shopping returned to pregame activity levels during halftime. After halftime activity declined dramatically, down -42% by the game’s final tick of the clock. Overall inventory search volume declined -23%, while lead volume actually increased 2.65% during the game. For the week following the Super Bowl, Monday through Saturday, all performance metrics remained down when compared to a typical non-Super Bowl week.

Consumer shopping behavior seems to be more impacted by the game itself than the ads within it. However, much of the goal of Super Bowl advertising is to build brand recognition and definition rather than generate website traffic and lead volume.

A full report of Promotional Impact Charts (PIC) for each automotive Super Bowl commercial is available upon request at dataium.com/contact. The report includes performance statistics by make and model, comparative statistics of auto buyer behavior pre-Super Bowl and post Super Bowl, as well as, keyword usage trends, and more. Custom reports are also available by request.