In Digital World, Big-Game TV Spots Just the Start

Four auto brands are advertising during college basketball’s March Madness run, but modern marketing doesn’t stop with a TV spot. In some respects, it starts there.

It’s a digital world, after all.

Acura, Alfa Romeo, Buick and Infiniti ads during the NCAA playoff games in part are tied to trying to connect with a socially and mobile-connected audience. The strategy is to get them car-shopping on their computer devices and ultimately into a dealership to purchase a vehicle.

It’s a multi-screen effort, says Jessica Stafford, vice president-marketing for Cox Automotive Media, which includes automotive marketplace websites Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book. “It is advertising to a big audience during a big event, then following up with connectivity.”

Cox tracks Autotrader and Kelley traffic and that of the dealer clients of Dealer.com, another Cox brand, that operates 62% of dealer websites.

Such tracking indicates how much digital action game advertisers are getting.

According to Dealer.com, Acura and Alfa saw small lifts in “quality visits” (those in which consumers express a strong interest in a particular vehicle) and visits in general from mobile-device users the weekend of March 16-19. Desktop use was down.

On Autotrader, Infiniti saw about a 3% uptick in both desktop and mobile search and Alfa saw a 14% lift and 37.5% lift in desktop and mobile-search shares, respectively.

Each auto brand’s ads feature a specific vehicle.     

Today’s TV viewers seldom are far from their mobile devices, particularly their smartphones, So there was even some tracked online car shopping done during the actual game, Stafford says.

But the real action occurs afterwards. That’s also when marketers should use digital marketing via websites, mobile, videos and search to springboard off the TV spots, she tells WardsAuto.

Using multi-screen strategies to influence consumers throughout their car-shopping journey may seem like a 6-ball juggling act, but it’s a necessary skill set for modern marketers, Stafford says. “It’s connecting all the pieces.”

She recommends dealers representing auto brands that advertise on major sports events partake in their own piggy-back marketing.

She’s “a little surprised” just four auto brands are March Madness advertisers. Ten were (including Alfa and Buick) for this year’s Super Bowl.

But the Super Bowl is a single event. March Madness is a series of games spanning weeks.

For a potential advertiser, “there’s the expense of multiple ads to consider and then there’s the issue of whether to run the same creative material or switch it up,” Stafford says.

In Saturday’s Final Four games, Gonzaga plays South Carolina and North Carolina plays Oregon. The winners face off Monday for the championship.

“March Madness marketing and our tracking of its effect on online auto shopping is spread over weeks, but we’ll see a bigger impact from the final game,” Stafford says. 

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