The Changing Face of Car Advertising Media

So, for decades auto has been the number one sector of total US advertising. But no more, according to eMarketer. They say that that title now belongs to retail. But auto still is the colossus online, as each year shows dramatic growth in total online spend for this big budget industry:



Trends in auto are really the harbinger of what is going to come in loads of categories, at least in my opinion. When I worked at Carat they developed a model that helped an auto maker value different kinds of online interactions with auto ads differently, as a way of evaluating the relative effectiveness of different marketing tools. I am sure some of you have seen Sarah Fay deliver the case study for this innovative model that drove lots of other agencies in that same direction. Because auto is not generally an impulse buy (Maserati dealers might disagree) there are a variety of interactions that an auto advertiser can have with a consumer, and each has a slightly different value in terms of getting people in a car today. Whatever the value of these particular action, the underpinning to action and interaction allows digital to show an enormous effectiveness advantage over TV or Print.

We live in challenging economic times -- at least for most people, and I suspect that more and more purchases are going to be "considered" in the future. If that comes to pass, I would surmise that more advertisers will be shifting greater and greater emphasis to interactive marketing pieces delivered via IP (PC, console, mobile, etc.) That can only be good for billings in our space.

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