• by Tanya Gazdik , February 18, 2025

The estimated national TV spending of the top five automakers focused heavily on NFL and NBA in January. 

Nine of the top 10 programs by overall industry spend were sports-related in January, according to iSpot.tv.

The NFL dominated with about 67% of automaker spend, followed by college football (10.6% spend share of voice) and the NBA (2.9%).

Chevrolet and Honda allocated the largest share of budget to NFL games (90% and 88%, respectively), per iSpot.tv. 

The NBA was another top target for all five automakers, ranking among the top 10 programs by January spend for each, and four of the five brands also spent big during college football (Honda was the outlier there). 

The top programs for automakers by share of household TV ad impressions in January were NFL (27.68%), college football (7.50%), NBA (3.79%), men’s college basketball (3.57%) and SportsCenter (1.06%). 

“Automakers kicked off 2025 with a heavy focus on sports to get in front of the largest audiences TV has to offer,” Stuart Schwartzapfel, executive vice president, media partnerships at iSpot.tv, tells Marketing Daily. “Advertising against sports’ wide consumer reach appeared to pay off, too, as industry data showed an uptick in January vehicle sales volume year-over-year.”

Sports-related programming accounted for over a third of total industry reach in January. The NFL dominated, although industry impressions decreased by 2.5% vs. January 2024, while men’s college basketball saw automaker ad impressions rise 10.4% year-over-year, and college football reach was up nearly 28%. 

The top five brands by estimated national TV ad spending for the month were Chevrolet ($41.6 million), Hyundai ($39.6 million), Jeep ($32.1 million), Ram Trucks ($29.7 million) and Honda ($27.6 million).

January estimated TV spending by automakers was nearly on par with a year ago, $332.1 million, down 0.5% year over year from $333.7 million, per iSpot.tv. 

January 2025 household TV ad impressions were 19.4 billion (down 10% year over year) compared to 21.5 billion.

The top five brands by share of automaker household TV ad impressions in January were Hyundai (12.59%), Toyota (9.29%), Lexus (8.98%), Chevrolet (7.95%) and Kia (6.72%).

The top five brands by share of voice on streaming for the month were  Hyundai (13.83%), Jeep (10.80%), Ram Trucks (9.57%), Toyota (7.96%) and Kia (5.98%).

Hyundai was January’s most-seen automaker on both streaming and national linear, with Kia also making the top five on both, according to iSpot.tv.

Meanwhile, Jeep put a greater emphasis on streaming over national linear from an ad reach SOV standpoint, ranking seventh for linear SOV, but second for streaming. 

The most-seen automaker ads by share of household TV ad impressions in January were  Lexus: Baby on Board (3.30%); Hyundai: Add to Cart (2.98%); Chevrolet: New Year, New Adventure (2.86%); Kia: Elevated By the Dark (2.58%); and Jeep: Open Your Eyes (2.46%).

The top automaker ads by likeability among the top 20 most-seen ads in January 2025 according to iSpot.tv. were Lexus: Baby on Board (+9.6% more likeable than January automotive norm); Jeep: Beautiful Things Can Still Get Dirty (+8.3%); Ram Trucks: The Calling: Football (+6.8%); Mercedes-Benz: Knows Your Day. Drives Your Way. (+5.6%); and Chevrolet: New Year, New Adventure (+4.8%).

As part of iSpot's creative assessment survey, likeability measures an ad's ability to appeal to viewers, based on results from the survey prompt “I like this ad.”

The top automaker ads by positive purchase intent among the top 20 most-seen ads were Jeep: Beautiful Things Can Still Get Dirty (61% positive purchase intent); Ram Trucks: The Calling: Football (58%); Infiniti: Audio Zones (55%); Genesis: Stand Apart (55%); and Hyundai: Joy Is Advanced Tech and Safety Features (53%).

Positive purchase intent, according to iSpot.tv, is the share of creative assessment survey respondents that indicated they were "more" or "much more" likely to purchase a product or service after seeing an ad.