Car Ads Rev Up During NBC’s NFL Season Opener

Commercials for automakers dominated Thursday night’s 100th anniversary NFL kickoff game on NBC.

According to research and analytics company EDO, there were 13 spots for automakers, which is an unusually high proportion for the category.

Toyota had a much better night than the Chicago Bears, who were taking a beating by their arch-rivals, the Green Bay Packers.

Toyota’s “Wizard” was the top commercial in terms of generating incremental search engagement volume, according to EDO, which tracks web traffic to measure the effectiveness of advertising.

The Wizard spot was also EDO’s top performer when it made its debut during the Super Bowl in February.

Toyota ran four 30-second spots and one 60 second spot during the Packers-Bears game, Hyundai ran six spots--four 30s and two 15s. Also running ads during the game were Jeep, Chevrolet and Volkswagen.

The top performing ads based on incremental search engagement volume among automakers after the Toyota Wizard ad featuring its Supra model were a new spot for the Jeep Gladiator, spots for the Hyundai Palisade, and a Hyundai spot called Hope on Wheels.

The best performing ad overall was a trailer for the upcoming film Joker. Other movie ads finished in the top 10, including one for It Chapter Two and Ad Astra. 

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.