Auto Ads Score Big With Super Bowl Viewers

Just the Facts:

• Eminem, Danica Patrick, P. Diddy and Darth Vader were some of the automotive MVPs at Super Bowl XLV.
• Volkswagen and Chrysler take top honors as the game's best commercials.
• Two Hyundai Elantra ads failed to leave an impression in viewers' memories.

DALLAS — Eminem, Danica Patrick, P. Diddy and Darth Vader were some of the automotive MVPs at Super Bowl XLV, which blitzed the airwaves with the most advertisements in a single category.

With auto ads making up more than a quarter of this year's Super Bowl commercial time, roughly twice as much as in 2010, how did they fare in standing out among the competition?

Beautifully, said Tim Calkins and Derek D. Rucker, marketing professors at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, who led a panel of MBA students in the annual Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review. Launched in 2005, the Review, unlike other popularity-based reviews, uses an academic framework known as ADPLAN to rate the commercials. The acronym instructs viewers to grade ads based on attention, distinction, positioning, linkage, amplification and net equity.

"This was definitely the year of the auto and it was reflected with the panel's top two advertisers being automakers — Volkswagen and Chrysler," said Calkins in a statement. "At Kellogg, our Review evaluates the ads based on strategic execution and the potential to build brands."

With that in mind, Kellogg students gave the top ranking to Volkswagen because it drove home its strong branding with clever creative, a boy dressed as Darth Vader believing he used the mythical Star Wars force to start his dad's remote-starter-equipped Passat, and a black beetle rounding corners through the forest to "Black Betty." Volkswagen edged out fellow "A" grade advertisers Chrysler, Mini Cooper and Bridgestone to win the Review.

Ad industry exec Lars Bastholm agreed with the Review's assessment in a live blog for The Wall Street Journal. "My two favorites were the VW spots. Nice to see spots that truly stuck out as charming and fun in a category that dominated the Super Bowl," wrote the chief creative officer at Ogilvy New York & chief digital creative officer at Ogilvy North America.

VW also won the popular real-time vote at ADBOWL, an advertising ranking Web site and iPhone app by McKee Wallwork Cleveland, which had 11,000 registered voters tweeting about what they were watching. USA Today's 23rd annual Ad Meter had it 3rd on the popularity list, behind two dog-rich ads: Bud Light's dog sitter who puts the pooches to work a at party and a pug being tempted with Doritos.

Chrysler threw a long pass in the third quarter with a mesmerizing two-minute ode to Detroit starring hip-hop artist Eminem hawking the Chrysler 200 with the tagline "Imported from Detroit." The carmaker had to get special permission from the NFL to run the two-minute ad, a first for the Super Bowl, because most commercial breaks are 90 seconds long.

"One of our students asked how long it was so we replayed it, double checked and we all agreed that it didn't feel like two minutes," Rucker said in a phone interview with Inside Line on Monday. "It's a great example of how creativity can keep an audience engaged."

Many Facebook and Twitter users enjoyed the emotion in it so much that they posted links to the ad, which further strengthens Chrysler's branding, said University of Detroit Mercy Marketing Professor Michael Bernacchi, who hosts his "Super Bowl Ad Nauseum," which discusses the effectiveness of the advertisements during the Super Bowl. The Ad Nauseum poll chose Chrysler's ad as the winner. "If the idea is to get people to comment and create a buzz, Chrysler is a definite winner," he said in a phone interview with Inside Line on Monday.

What Rucker finds interesting is how the Super Bowl's top two ads are strikingly different from each other. "Volkswagen had the more playful and humorous approach, while Chrysler took a more dark and daring approach that was inspiring in an emotional way, and yet they were both so memorable."

Of course, there were auto ads that failed to impress Kellogg's Review. Kia's "One Epic Ride" joined Hyundai's mass hypnosis along with Danica Patrick's GoDaddy, Lipton Brisk and HomeAway at the bottom of the Review. "The commercials may have been fine for a regular night of TV watching, but they weren't memorable enough to stand out in the Super Bowl lineup," Rucker said.

USA Today's Ad Meter ranked the two Hyundai Elantra spots dead last and they were the only two commercials with less than a 5.0 average.

Super Bowl XLV was groundbreaking in terms of how many companies integrated social media campaigns to extend their $3 million investment for a 30-second spot, Fox's going rate. Two car companies went the celebrity route with Audi's humorous Kenny G "break out of luxury" ad, while Mercedes-Benz slipped in P. Diddy with Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz" serenading the scene. "While their campaigns were robust, the Super Bowl spots ranked in the middle of our results," Rucker explained.

Chevrolet's return to the Super Bowl lineup after a two-year absence was a welcome site to USA Today's Ad Meter voters, who chose the dad who rescued his son with the help of a Silverado as its third most favorite auto company ad (behind the two VW ads).

"Chevrolet made a big splash because it had so many ads — six of them — and it was the post-game sponsor and then it had the Glee tie-in, too, which is such a wonderful connection for them," said University of Detroit Mercy's Bernacchi.

BMW returned to the field after a 10-year absence, but it didn't fare as well as Chevy. Its X3 "Made in America" line confused Kellogg's Review. "The message didn't go over so well because the students kept saying, 'Fine, you make the car in America but you are not an American brand at all and your message isn't working with what facts I know,'" Rucker explained.

While Ford sat the game out, it did sponsor the pre-game right before kickoff. "That's the best spot in the Super Bowl because your ad doesn't have to be evaluated and dissected, not to mention they spent six months getting media attention on how they weren't going to be advertising in the Super Bowl," Bernacchi pointed out.

The game was a chance for the auto industry to pitch about 100 million viewers. Last year, the Super Bowl attracted 106.5 million viewers, the biggest American TV audience in history.

In a poll of Super Bowl viewers last year, television audience researcher Nielsen found that 51 percent of them tuned in more to watch the commercials than the game itself, according to Reuters.

"It was a grand day for the auto industry," Bernacchi says.

Inside Line says: Car-spangled banners flew high at Super Bowl XLV — Rene Wisely, Correspondent