Cars to star in many Super Bowl ads

ADVERTISING Forget the cola wars. Super Bowl XLVI is all about the car wars.

This year’s game on Sunday will have more than 14 car-related ads, which will take up nearly two dozen of the 70 ad slots, which carried an average sticker price of $3.5 million for 30 seconds.

With consumers again spending on autos and sales rising, these Big Game advertisers are rolling out bigbudget commercials to rival the splashiest of soft drink marketing.

In the past few days alone, Super Sunday car advertisers have revealed high-octane commercials that feature celebrities such as Matthew Broderick and Jerry Seinfeld, as well as showing their autos doing extreme stunts — including a Chevy Sonic skydiving and bungee jumping.

“The economy and the car business are in recovery,” says Michelle Krebs, a senior analyst at car research site Edmunds. com. Carmakers have more money to spend on ads, and added incentive after Chrysler, Volkswagen and Chevy wowed viewers with well-received ads last year.

They’ve also learned new tricks, Krebs says. Auto advertisers have been schooled on the value of social media, especially when it comes to sending out teaser videos, as well as full versions of their gameday ads, she says.

So far, Hyundai, Lexus, General Motors and Audi have released full versions of ads online. Honda, Acura and VW have released teasers.

Here’s what marketers are doing to try to make their ads stand out:

Going for “second screen” attention: Carmakers are also trying new tricks to get consumer attention during the game. With more than 100 million viewers expected to tune in — and many using “multiple screens” such as smartphones and tablets during the game — they’ve launched a wide range of multimedia efforts.

Going Hollywood: Several car marketers — and other advertisers — are turning to celebrities to create buzz for their brands.

Going for Boomers: It’s no accident that Honda turned to Broderick and that Acura turned to Jay Leno and Seinfeld. All appeal to Boomers, who have the wherewithal to buy more cars than just about anyone.