• by Karl Greenberg , December 20, 2012

Last month, Dodge, Chevrolet, and Ford came out on top in the ad awareness wars, according to YouGov Brand Index. The firm bases the ranking on a daily poll of 5,000 per weekday via online panel meant to be demographically representative of the national population.

Dodge launched the "New Rules" campaign for the 2013 Dart in July, and the campaign, which featured JayZ and Kanye West, and which Dodge has sustained with new ads over the ensuing months, has been a huge awareness builder for the Chrysler, LLC brand. Giving a boost to the brand last month were a trio of ads: “How to Test Your Car for Fun,” “How to Make a Great Car Interior” and “How to Make a Car for an Unsafe World,” per the firm, which says 39% of U.S. car shoppers affirm that they have seen ads for the brand.

Second place is a three-way tie between Chevrolet, Ford and Lexus at 36% awareness. For Chevrolet, the awareness boost came from its partnerships with Live Nation around its Sonic subcompact vehicle, and with dailybreak.com social media push that offered a chance to win a new Cruze, Sonic or Spark. Parenthetically, the brand has been playing in the Comic-Con sandbox, with painted Sonics featured at the animation convention series.

As for the blue oval, a new 360-degree African-America-directed campaign for the Fusion sedan matched Chevrolet's awareness level. The spot, also on the general market, features Andre Royo of HBO’s “The Wire” who uses a faux laser gun to shape a clay model of the car into the real thing. 

Rounding out the three-way tie with Chevrolet and Ford is Lexus; Toyota got 33% awareness; in another three-way were General Motors' four brands together, Volkswagen, and Dodge sibling Fiat; next was Mercedes Benz at 27%, and Honda at 26%.