• by Tanya Gazdik , December 2, 2022

The estimated national TV spending by automakers in November was $304.1 million, down 11.3% year over year compared to $342.7 last November, according to iSpot.tv.

Ad impressions, however, were up 12.3% year over year for the month to 29.1 billion compared to 25.9 billion in November 2021. 

The top five brands by estimated national TV ad spending in November were Chevrolet ($29.8 million), Toyota ($29.0 million), Hyundai ($28.3 million), Jeep ($26.2 million) and Honda ($23.3 million).

The most-seen automaker ads for the month were Lexus: Characters (2.89%); Hyundai: Own Every Mile - Jackson Hole (2.76%); Jeep: Made For Beautiful Days (2.71%); Hyundai: Own Every Mile - Big Sky (2.65%) and Jeep: Eyes Wide Open (2.36%), per iSpot.tv.

Chevrolet’s November estimated national TV ad spend climbed 24% year-over-year, as the brand tripled minutes of advertising, while also spending more on primetime programs like the World Series. 

Toyota also increased the frequency of its national TV ad minutes compared to Nov. 2021, with 2.6 times more this year. Hyundai’s spend grew by 27.5% year-over-year, in large part due to increasing its investment in the NFL ($23.1 million this November, versus $15.3 million last year).

The top five brands by share of automaker TV ad impressions in November were  Chevrolet (9.32%), Toyota (8.56%), Lexus (8.46%), Hyundai (8.08%) and Jeep (6.10%), per iSpot.tv.

The biggest spend increases among top 15 brands by spend for the month compared to a year ago were BMW (+117.88%), Lexus (+72.86%), Jeep (+70.64%), Volkswagen (+34.71%) and Hyundai (+27.51%).

The FIFA Men’s World Cup – which didn’t air last November – helped drive BMW’s spend upward year-over-year, with the English-language games and related coverage accounting for nearly 24% of the brand’s spend in November. 

With the World Cup in the middle of the holiday season this year, automaker brands are getting a unique opportunity to get in front of massive audiences with holiday messaging outside of NFL and college football games, said Stuart Schwartzapfel, executive vice president, media partnerships at iSpot.tv. 

“It also puts a spotlight on the importance of prioritizing the Spanish-speaking market, since Spanish-language automotive ad impressions jumped 44% year-over-year in November on the strength of strong soccer viewership,” Schwartzapfel says. 

For Lexus, the brand nearly doubled its November national TV ad minutes year-over-year, but also increased spend on broadcast networks like NBC and ABC. 

Jeep’s climb is fueled in large part by a larger year-over-year investment in tentpole programming like the NFL (145% more spent), college football (65% more) and the World Series (nothing last November vs. $599K this year).

The top programs for automakers by TV ad impressions share of voice in November were the NFL (13.00%), College football (10.00%), Copa Mundial De la FIFA 2022 (2.28%), World Series (1.38%) and SportsCenter (1.18%), per iSpot.tv.. 

On top of the World Cup being new November programming year-over-year,  the World Series featured four games in November this year, versus just one in 2021.