Study: Dealers Should Rev Up Auto Ads

Until Ned Jordan founded his namesake auto company, early automotive advertising stuck to listing product features and options. (Windshields cost extra back then.)

But Jordan, who wrote ads for a living before starting the Jordan Motor Car Co. in the 1920s, set out to stir emotions about his product. He’s remembered less about his car, the Jordan Playboy  and more about the ads pitching it.

An excerpt from his most famous spot, “Somewhere West of Laramie,” the first to sell sizzle:

“Somewhere west of Laramie, there's a bronco-busting, steer-roping girl who knows what I’m talking about. She can tell what a sassy pony, that’s a cross between greased lighting and the place where it hits, can do with eleven hundred pounds of steel and action when he's going high, wide and handsome.

“The truth is - the Playboy was built for her.”

Today’s Ads Short on Impact

Those were the days.

But the times, yes, they’ve changed in a big way. An analysis by System1, a company that gauges consumer reactions to advertising, says more than 50% of today’s car ads have no long-term impact because they fail to register high on the emotion scale. 

System1, a market research and behavioral-science firm formerly called by the out-there name BrainJuicer, says much automotive advertising lacks distinctiveness.

The company cites Tesla’s Elon Musk, who critiqued his auto company’s recent ad campaigns as too generic and failing to stand out.

Automotive ad spending in the U.S. is big. It reached nearly $21 billion last year.

System1’s study, based on analyzing 9,000 auto spots, concludes:

Compared with other business sectors, auto industry ad metrics score low in long-term brand growth, short-term sales impact and emotional intensity.

What’s often missing is storytelling, a powerful form of communication that transcends the ages.

Best Practices

“We recommend that ads tell stories with a strong beginning, middle and end and characters you can root for,” Jess Messenger, System1’s global head of communications, tells WardsAuto. “Don’t get hung up on the features. There is a way to show them by building them into the story.”

Compelling storytelling offers climaxes and resolutions that emotionally engage viewers, she says.

She cites Kia’s Robo Dog spot, aired during the 2022 Super Bowl, as hitting the high notes.

“It’s OK to invoke intense negative emotions as long as those are resolved at the end of an ad,” Messenger says of auto ads crafted to build brand recognition. “There are different story arcs advertisers can take.”

Dealer Ads

Car dealership ads differ from automaker ads because they are more direct calls to action. Whereas automaker ads typically try to enhance brand recognition, dealer ads seek to get viewers into the showroom to buy.

System1 holds 6,000 dealership ads covering eight years in its database of tested ads.

Many dealer ads are effective.

“A lot of them are very promotional, with voiceovers and offers of limited deals,” Messenger says. “We also see a lot of ‘purpose-led’ dealer ads like fundraising and community engagement. Those have a local feel that resonates well. They drive emotion – intense emotion – which is great for the short-term sales potential.”

System1 works with client ad agencies to pre-test ads and predict their potential effectiveness.

“Everything we do is rooted in behavioral science,” Messenger says. “We know the more people feel about a product, the more they buy it.”

How Ad Effectiveness Is Measured

The company pre-tests ads by showing them to a wide group that functions much like a focus group.

As audience members watch ads, each pushes buttons, expressing their emotions, particularly happiness and sadness, throughout the spots.

The setup measures how people feel – and how intensely, Messenger says.

“Happiness and surprise work in your favor for long-term brand building. “Sadness works against you unless it’s resolved in the end.”

Evaluation group members report how their emotions change during each ad. They press buttons to register their feelings and their intensity.

System1’s testing rates ads on a star scale of 1 to 5.  The average of 9,000 analyzed auto ads was 2.1 stars, predicting modest long-term brand growth.

“So, there is a real issue with car ads,” Messenger says. “A lot of them are formulaic and too product-focused.”

Some auto ads don’t identify the brand or show its logo until the very end. That’s not advisable, Messenger says.

“We recommend bringing the brand out front and center in the first few seconds. Recognition spikes when you do that,” she says. “Cite the brand early and often. It connects better to the creative. It’s fine to reinforce it at the end. But audiences should know early who the ad is about.”

Done right, humor is effective in ads. “It builds intense positive emotion,” Messenger says, citing a spot playing off the 1993 movie “Groundhog Day” starring Bill Murray, a groundhog and a Jeep.

That was also a Super Bowl ad.

But beyond Super Bowl spots, “there aren’t many entertaining auto ads throughout the year,” Messenger says.