• by Karl Greenberg , June 5, 2009

AutoTrader.com will double its media exposure this year by adding ESPN/ABC to its broadcast media advertising mix.

The buy, which begins in July, will give AutoTrader.com advertising real estate and in-program integration on Monday Night Football on ESPN; college football broadcasts on ESPN and ABC; NASCAR Sprint Cup broadcasts on ESPN and ABC; and Major League Baseball broadcasts on ESPN and on ESPN SportsCenter airings on Saturday nights, per the Atlanta-based auto classifieds marketplace and consumer information Web site.

AutoTrader.com's current ad buy -- both ad units and brand integration -- includes the NBA on TNT; MTV, Vh1, Comedy Central and Spike TV. AutoTrader also advertises during NFL games, and advertised on the Daytona 500 broadcast and Major League Baseball events, including the All-Star game, the playoffs and the World Series.

AutoTrader ended 2008 with an average of 13 million unique monthly visitors, and this year is racking up 15 million unique monthly visitors. The company says that about 70% of visitors arrive at the site by typing the name into their browser. Visitors to AutoTrader.com spend on average more than 30 minutes on the site, researching makes and models, searching inventory, comparing prices and searching dealer specials.

"We knew we were going to look at broadcast for another element of our campaign this year," says John Kovac, senior director of advertising at AutoTrader.com. "We have had so much success to date with our sports sponsorship we did early this year and continue to do with Fox that it made a lot of sense to go back into sports and round out our Fox and TNT buy. We had been looking into it and really decided we wanted to give a strong ad push in addition to what we had planned in the second half of year to help our dealer customers."

He says the high-profile buys double AutoTrader's media exposure in the second half. "We are getting back into NASCAR, NFL, expanding Major League Baseball, and college football. So I would say it's a very significant addition," he says.

What the company will not have this year is new creative. AutoTrader.com will stick with its two current spots, one that features a Paul Bunyanesque auto shopper and another showing a huge armada of cars. Southfield, Mich.-based Doner has handled ad duties for AutoTrader.com since the company's inception a decade ago.

Kovac adds that the male sports focus with the expanded buy augments the current media plan. "We are trying to keep a balance between male and female focus."