Cars.com Superbowl commercials - What did you think?

[Jeff Kershner]

I'm with you Gerald. I got the same message.."dealers are bad, Cars.com is good."

I get so tired of everyone placing dealers and sales people as the bad guys BUT "they" just happen to have the solution for the consumer.

 

[McCoy Wood]

Yikes! That is definitely not what Cars.com intended to portray. Good feedback Gerald and Jeff. I do see where you are coming from. I use to sell cars myself, so I know the stigma and frustration. My take from the commercials was... we were trying to convey, that by going to Cars.com, consumers can find all the information on the vehicle they want(Carfax history, consumer reviews, ratings, finance information, location of the vehicle, pictures, etc) thus making them more "confident" in their purchase when they get to the dealership. I do see you view though.

 

[Brian T in Etown]

Not to hi-jack the thread Jeff but can you say CARFAX?
If they don't put dealers in a bad light I don't know who does, but hey it is working for them. When was the last time you sold a used car without a carfax?

 

[Jeff Larsen (blog)]

HOT OFF THE PRESSES! Cars.com recently spent a whopping 2.6 million dollars per Super Bowl ad in their most recent attempt to gain market share in the competitive automotive online advertising business...

Success or Digress? You be the judge!

Here's the 'real' dope DealerRefreshers! No pun intended friends...

Cars.com Stats for my dealership

Times vehicles appeared in search results:
Feb 1 - Feb 4, 2008 = 17,128
Jan 1 - Jan 4, 2008 = 29,944

People Requesting Details On Your Vehicles
Feb 1 - Feb 4, 2008 = 539
Jan 1 - Jan 4, 2008 = 859

Total Contacts
Feb 1 - Feb 4, 2008 = 18
Jan 1 - Jan 4, 2008 = 23

America, You Be The Judge! Vote Now!

Success or Digress?

 

[Eric Miltsch (blog)]

I'd wager everyone saw a brief dip in traffic starting on the 1st & 2nd; the entire country was preoccupied with this year's SB.

Our traffic took a nose-dive on Sunday and sprung back to life yesterday. Cars.com was lucky enough in their timing to choose this year to snag ad space - the extra eyeballs should (hopefully) be good for a little extra traffic.

The spots may have seemed forced in their attempt at humor - but I chalk that up as their method of reaching out to their biggest user group. Again, hopefully they connected.

 

[Joe Pistell]

--sorry all, thread jack!--

Hey! Anyone going to NADA San Fran? We outta have a DR cocktail hour somewhere! Topic? World Domination in 8 easy steps, followed by a coming out party of Lightnup! hahahaa

We all got packed schedules, but you never know!

email me:
joe[dot]pistell[at]usedcarking[dot]com

 

[Wayne Anderson]

IMO, these third-party sites like AT and Cars.com would be irrelevant if dealers had better websites that built up the customer's confidence. But the industry lags in that area, so we have these other companies that have to do it for us.

After a customer finds a vehicle they want on a third-party site, they are checking out the dealer site. That's where the dealership's unique personality needs to show through to build up customer confidence.

I agree with Gerald's comment about the ad's message...

"Dealers are bad"...that's why you would need a Plan B in the first place, but with our product, you'll have confidence to stand your ground and therefore will not need your Plan B.

 

[Jake]

Jeff Larsen - I know you're just making a point, but I think to be fair you need to extend your date range beyond 4 days. Just for starters, the day of the week has a lot to do with traffic. Jan. 1-4 was a Tues. through Fri. while Feb. 1-4 was a Friday through Monday. Jan 1-4 was a week when the majority of people were back at work after vacations, and Feb. 4th is the day of the year when an estimated 1.5 million people called in sick. I'd be interested to see your end of month comparison though.

Also, I think the ad was more of a branding message than a "drop what you're doing and go to cars.com now" message. I'm sure some reps tell the dealers to be ready for the influx of shoppers, but the fact is, running ads doesn't create more car shoppers. It just (hopefully) makes them think of cars.com when they are ready for their next vehicle.

Joe P - Cheap shot at Lightnup, although funny!

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

Jake - when it comes to Firinupaphatspliff....errrr.....Lightnup there is no such thing as a cheap shot. If he won't come out and say who he is, then he's free game!

Joe - I'll be there. Saturday night?

 

[Jeff Larsen (blog)]

Jake- ok, to be fair will return in a few weeks and do comparison update.

Point being though, Cars.com paid $2.6 mil to advertise on the most anticipated advertising day on tv, one would think as a beneficiary of their product we would have experienced some sort of short term spike somewhere in the reporting results.

It was just an odd commercial. 'Out in right field' odd? I would say not even in the same ballpark odd. Good, bad? Let's see if they follow-up with continuing advertising to build upon the Super Bowl plug. For the benefit of us all, I hope so.

Would write the same if it was an ATC ad.