New York Autos Show: Is The Autos Sector Losing Its Grip On The Super Bowl?

Is the Autos sector losing its grip on the Super Bowl? Certainly, the online advertising stats suggest so.

With the New York Autos Show in full swing, we thought it was an ideal opportunity to look at some key stats around the sector’s recent performance at the Super Bowl.

After all, no other sector spent more on marketing ahead of Super Bowl 2014 (source: Wall Street Journal). However, after looking at data collected from Unruly Analytics and the Unruly Viral Video Chart, it seems the online performance of car brands at the Super Bowl has declined rapidly in the last two years, with FMCG/CPG replacing Autos as the dominant sector. The Force is no longer longer strong.

• A storming performance at this year’s Super Bowl saw Budweiser replace Volkswagen as the most successful social video Super Bowl brand of all time;
• A lackluster performance by Auto brands at the last two Super Bowls has seen shares of Autos ads across Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere drop by 70.2%. In 2013, shares of ads for car brands dropped by 31%. It meant Autos, the dominant sector the previous three years, was overtaken by FMCG/CPG. FMCG/CPG’s dominance continued in 2014, while shares of Auto ads once again dropped by 56.6%;
• Audi’s “Doberhuahua”, the most shared autos ad from Super Bowl 2014, was only fifth overall, coming in behind spots such as Budweiser’s “Puppy Love” and Coca-Cola’s “America Is Beautiful”;
• Auto brands attracted 73.8% of the shares at Super Bowl 2011, and 76.6% at Super Bowl 2012. Fast forward to 2014 and that figure has shrunk to 15.4%.