While sales for the auto industry been plunging, it hasn't stopped the automakers from continuing to splash their ads all over the Web.
Using data from the comScore Ad Metrix service (NASDAQ:SCOR), comScore released a study showing how the automakers were spending their online advertising dollars in January 2008.
Leading the way for automakers in online advertising was General Motors (NYSE: GM), which delivered close to 1.7 billion display ad views in the U.S. Right behind them was Toyota (NYSE: TM), which had 1.4 billion, and Ford (NYSE: F) with 1.1 billion.
Some interesting statistics revealed that General Motors had close to 103 million individuals view their display ads during January, while Ford followed with 95 million and Toyota was next with 62 million.
What was interesting about it was while General Motors and Ford beat out Toyota in the number of ads delivered per person reached, Toyota led in the frequency of ads delivered, with each person encountering a display ad 22 times; General Motors had 16 and Ford 11.
Another important finding, is even though many writers have declared the end of Internet portals, at this time it's not true for the auto industry, as Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) was the top recipient of auto display ads, with a total of 936 million views of display ads; Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) was next with 585 million display ad views.
Other significant recipients of ads from the automakers was AutoTrader, which enjoyed 114 million display ad views, and Edmunds.com, which attained 98 million display ad views.
Alistair Sutcliffe, vice president of comScore Advertising Solutions, commented on the migration of ad dollars from the auto industry to the Internet, saying that “GM has really led the auto industry in its use of online advertising. And, their recent announcement that half of their $3 billion annual advertising budget would be spent online in the coming years is likely to be a bellwether for many industries. Many traditional advertisers are beginning to understand that the Internet enables them to efficiently build their brands by achieving their demographic reach and frequency goals while at the same time reaching the most attractive, behaviorally-defined target segments. This is a winning recipe for achieving an attractive return on one’s advertising investment.”
I don't care what happens in the overall world or U.S. economy, this trend is going to keep growing. The only question is if the shift to advertising on the Internet will overcome the slowing economy and diminishing ad budgets. I think the answer will be yes.
The Internet won't suffer from declining ad sales, but a lot of other media platforms will.
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