Advertising investment in passenger cars grew by 12% in the first half. In the first six months of 2017 this investment was 260 million euros, while in 2018 it reached 291 million.
According to the latest Sectoral Report on Automobile Advertising of Tourism (ISP Automobiles) made by Arce Media, this increase of 12% refers to the investment of the brand and that of the concessionaires. If only the advertising of the brand were taken into account, the growth would be 20.7%.
Despite being an “important growth”, this investment is 38.4% lower than in the first half of 2016. In the first semesters of 2015 and 2016 the leader in advertising investment was Renault, although in the last two years, 2017 and 2018, Seat led the ranking. The rest of the brands reduced their budgets “drastically”, with exceptions such as Hyundai and Fiat.
With respect to 2016, all brands increased their advertising investment except Audi and Mercedes, which decreased by 17.7% and 23% respectively. The biggest increases were Hyundai and Ford: they grew 75% and 51% respectively.
In almost all media advertising investment was increased. If anything, it had a very slight descent in the middle magazines and abroad. The most important growth was that of the radio, which went from 13 million euros in the first half of 2016 to 17 million in the same period of 2018 (+ 30.8%). Television, with a growth of 18.3%, was the true driver of overall growth.
On the other hand, the citizen, utilitarian and family segments, that is, the smallest and best-selling cars, are the ones that increased their advertising presence to a greater extent. The most advertised model in this first semester was the Seat Ibiza, followed by the C4, the Auris, the C3 and the Fiat Punto.
The expectations for the second semester of the year are not as promising as those of this first semester: a decrease in sales is expected, among other things because the purchase of the car has been anticipated to take advantage of the subsidies and avoid the VAT increase, and The rule of gold almost universal is “less sales less advertising”.
