• February 5, 2008

Cars.com, the Chicago-based online auto market, which ran two TV ads during Sunday's broadcast of the Super Bowl, will continue the push with its largest-ever campaign.

The company says it will spend $200 million on broadcast, print and online channels to reach - the company hopes - some 261 million people. Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures, LLC, which is owned by media companies Belo, Gannett, The McClatchy Company, Tribune Company and The Washington Post Company.

The "Car Shopping Confidence" campaign will center on TV, with Cars.com spots on ABC, Comedy Central, the Discovery Channel, ESPN, ESPN2, TBS, TNT and USA.

The company said it will also sponsor "The Colbert Report," "The Closer," "The Office," "Burn Notice" and "FutureTrans." Sponsorship includes Cars.com-branded content and special commercial placements and ads.

The company will sink media bucks into sports programming, sponsoring NCAA "Tournament Reports" on ESPN's "SportsCenter" and ESPN2's "Nascar Now." The company will also re-up as sponsor of "Saturday Afternoon College Football" on ESPN.

The national television and online campaign will be supported by aggressive local advertising through the power of Cars.com's affiliate network of more than 175 leading newspapers, TV stations and their respective websites.

Cars.com is also planning on an online "roadblock" style ad campaign on Yahoo! The company will saturate My Yahoo, News Mail, Messenger, YouTube, MySpace and NFL.com. --Karl Greenberg