• Marketing Charts, Wednesday, November 28, 2007 11:30 AM

Bad enough their sales are in the sewer, U.S. automakers couldn''t even keep up with their Japanese rivals in reaching U.S. consumers via TV and radio advertising, according to new research from Integrated Media Measurement Inc. (IMMI).

Carmakers whose ads reached the most American buyers in late summer were Honda, Toyota, and Nissan; the Japanese reached on average 22% more audience than U.S. automakers and 27% more than European manufacturers. Among the findings of the study, based on the number of times car ads were seen by consumers in New York, Houston, Denver, Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami: The automaker with the greatest number of overall net impressions on radio and TV was Honda, with 28% more reach than the average of all the other automakers; Mazda had the most television net impressions at 37% above the average, while BMW was an overwhelming leader in radio with 239% more.

But when it came to effectively using a cross-platform strategy, Ford had the biggest percentage increase in overall unique audience -- 37% -- when adding a second medium: radio.

Read the whole story at Marketing Charts »