There were an impressive number of ads about electric cars at the Super Bowl, and yet you could argue that Tesla came out on top without spending a cent on advertising.
It’s not the first time that automakers invested in Super Bowl ads for their EVs, but for the first time, not one, not two, not three, but four automakers spent millions of dollars to promote their electric cars at the same Super Bowl.
It might indicate a change in the trend of low ad spending on electric vehicles.
The Sierra Club and the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM) have an interesting annual study of advertising instances and spending for electric vehicles by automakers.
The last one showed that they are pushing to sell EVs significantly less than gas-guzzling cars, and are not spending a lot of money to try to educate the public about electric propulsion.
It’s an issue, because the lack of awareness is surprisingly still the biggest problem for electric vehicle adoption, as surveys have shown.
Now Super Bowl watchers’ awareness is certainly up since they watched three ads featuring electric vehicles.
As we previously reported, Audi launched a new electric car ad campaign featuring Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams for the Super Bowl:
https://youtu.be/WvEAklsAAts
GM also had its own Super Bowl ad, and it was for the relaunch of the GMC Hummer brand as an electric brand.
It featured Lebron James, who is apparently going to be a brand ambassador:
Porsche also came out with its own Super Bowl commercial and it featured the Taycan – its first all-electric vehicle:
https://youtu.be/YQEOafgslSo
Ford also featured its new electric car, the Mustang Mach-E, at the Super Bowl.
The ad itself has been around for over a month now, and while it might not have been made for the Super Bowl, they paid premium to have it featured during the game:
https://youtu.be/HcZP4Y7Pk9A
That premium is not cheap. The cost of broadcasting a 30-second ad during the Super Bowl is estimated at more than $5 million.
Interestingly, Tesla had its own advertising around the Super Bowl, and it was free.
The automaker is known for not spending any money on advertising, and instead focusing on delivering products that will generate word-of-mouth.
It worked out last weekend, as many athletes from both teams at the Super Bowl agreed that Tesla has the hottest car right now. CNBC reported:
Ahead of the big game, CNBC finds out the Kansas City Chiefs and 49ers have one thing in common — their players are obsessed with Tesla. Whether it’s the speed or the automation, it’s the new status symbol in the NFL.
Some of them said that they already preordered the Tesla Cybertruck.
Electrek’s Take
This is an all-around win for electric cars.
Four major automakers spent millions of dollars to promote their EVs and reached millions of people who are now more aware of electric vehicles.
As for Tesla, it’s great for the company that influential athletes with a large following are talking about them.
More specifically, they seem to be impressed by the vehicle in general, and it just happens to be electric, which is a good thing to normalize EVs in the market.
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