• by Tanya Gazdik , December 29, 2024

Hyundai owns two of the 10 most-seen auto ads of 2024 (No. 1 and No. 10), both promoting its Getaway Sales Event. 

Hyundai: Summer: Add More Joy and Hyundai: Add More Joy had shorter airing windows than the others in the ranking, but achieved wide reach via a focus on sports, particularly Major League Baseball, according to iSpot.tv. 

The summer Hyundai spot registered 2.86 billion total household impressions from 7,084 airings while the other spot registered 1.64 billion total household impressions after 6,318 airings. The summer spot inspired notable positive purchase intent, with 43% of respondents saying they were “more” or “much more” likely to purchase after viewing the ad. 

Combined, the 10 most-seen auto TV ads of 2024 accounted for more than 8% of the industry’s total TV ad impressions for the year. 

Sports and related programming were key drivers of reach for eight of the 10 ads. Dodge’s Inner Child Intervention (No. 5) and Subaru’s  The Moment (No. 7) were the outliers, putting a focus on news programming (including morning shows) instead, according to the iSpot.tv data, which spanned from Jan. 1 to Dec. 15.

Prime time was the top daypart by reach for all 10 ads, especially for the No. 3 Genesis ad (primetime impressions share of voice of 56.8%) and the No. 6 Kia spot (prime-time impressions SOV of 63.8%). 

Cable networks led for impressions for the ads from Dodge (MSNBC, HLN, Fox News) and Lexus (ESPN, ESPN2, Food Network), while the other eight spots had broadcast networks leading for reach.

Per iSpot’s Creative Assessment, the spot from Dodge successfully harnessed humor and a fun storytelling approach to stand out from a creative perspective. It performed above the automotive average for attention, likeability, watchability, information, desire and relevance, with a persuasion score 16% higher than the 2024 auto norm. 

Additionally, the spot inspired notable positive purchase intent, with 58% of respondents saying they were “more” or “much more” likely to purchase after viewing the ad.  

Other top finishers were GMC: THE Truck (No. 2), Genesis: Illuminated (No. 3), Jeep: Make the Most (No. 4), Kia: Built for the Unstoppable  (No. 6), Infiniti: Once Upon a Time  (No. 8) and Lexus: We Heard You (No. 9).