Cars.Com Launches New Interactive Campaign on Super Bowl XXLII

It’s now the beginning of Super Bowl XLII weekend with kick-off a little more than 48 hours away. With all the media and marketing hype it's kinda hard to remember that there's an actual football game at the center of all this hype.

However, besides the many news stories surrounding the Super Bowl today's breaking news is that Microsoft put in a $44.6 BILLION bid to buy YAHOO! The timing kinda reminds me of Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees trying to up stage the Boston Red Sox in the last World Series with back and forth contract negotiations! The nerve of Microsoft announcing this on the eve of what has turned into a national holiday for us Americans!

Anyhow, I've written serveral posts on the many interactive promotions that are tied one way or another to Super Bowl XLII. The most important fact though that I would like to point out is that many marketers this year are now integrating interactive promotions into the mix. Whether they're paying the big $2.7 million for a 30- second spot or not, they've finally realized that offering their consumers some type of incentive through a website is the best way to actually engage them.

This article ran yesterday by MediaPost's Joshua Stylman which lists "Three Simple Steps To Score Online on Game Day". Joshua pointed out that nearly one in five ads in last year's Super Bowl failed to include a URL and 90% of them lacked any call-to-action! It's hard to believe that was just a year ago. I bet we'll see URL's in close to 90%, if not all of the ads this year. Plus, I believe from what I've read that more that half will have some type of call to action driving people online.

I have just one more promotion that I would like to quickly feature before the big game is upon us. It involves a new campaign that Cars.com will be launching with two ads running during the Super Bowl. The objective of their "Car Shopping Confidence" Campaign is to position Cars.com as the way to prepare when shopping for a car. An interactive campaign is scheduled to launch on their website immediately following the game.

"2008 will be a breakout year for the Cars.com brand as we make a significant marketing investment to extend awareness of the site and differentiate Cars.com from other car-shopping destinations," said Mitch Golub, president of Cars.com. "With all-new creative featuring our new brand message, the Super Bowl offers the ultimate media opportunity to introduce our campaign to the more-than 90 million viewers expected to tune in."

Cars.com's two 30-second spots will run during the first and third quarters. Both ads close with the new tagline, Confidence Comes Standard. MediaPost 's Out to Launch featured teaser ads you can watch here and here. The interactive campaign, called Waiting Room, is where consumers can also watch the commercials and as well as engage with characters featured in the ads. These ad characters are no longer needed to assist car shoppers at the dealership because those shoppers have prepared themselves on Cars.com. The characters are seen in a series of entertaining video vignettes as well as in customizable email messages that consumers can send to help them negotiate other situations in their lives. Both the ads and the interactive campaign were created and produced by DDB Chicago.

"We want to educate shoppers that Cars.com has all the information they need to take control of the shopping process," Golub said. "The Super Bowl gives us a platform to get that message out in a big way, but it's just the starting point of a year-long campaign. We plan to surround consumers with our new message on air, in print and online to let them know Cars.com gives them everything they need to confidently buy a new or used car."

Not only has Cars.com integrated its website, but will feature the new creative on Yahoo!, MySpace and YouTube to build on Super Bowl momentum. Cars.com's local affiliate network of 175 leading newspapers and television stations will also back the campaign on their leading websites, many dedicating homepage takeovers scheduled to run following the Super Bowl.

So, I think Cars.com really gets it. Also I'm curious to see if their new interactive campaign turns into the next viral marketing hit or not. You never know. Who would of thought a bunch of crazy elves would engage us as much as they did over the holidays.

I'd like to wish a Happy Super Bowl Sunday to all. Make sure you have enough chips and dip and of course beer on hand. Come back on Monday and we'll discuss how many brands actually did "get it" and those that didn't. Oh and by the way if you're wondering, I'm rooting for the underdogs! Go Giants!

Comments

[Miguel C.]

We just posted our 4th annual study of how well super bowl advertisers integrated online and offline advertising - we'll be writing more about this on our blog, but the preliminary findings are already up on our site: www.reprisemedia.com/scorecard.aspx.

[Donna DeClemente]

Thanks for the info Miguel. I just did a new post today discussing how the Super Bowl ads integrated with the web and mention your study there as well. Keep the info coming please.