As the Super Bowl approached, brands continued to generate buzz and stir up conversations in regard to their upcoming Super Bowl ads. The automotive industry has often had placements during the Super Bowl for years and this year was no exception. This market is highly competitive when seeking to be featured during this top-rated event. There were two specific brands that drove a major conversation as the Super Bowl approached. Lexus and KIA made their debut on millions of television screens across the nation and generated an interesting conversation among viewers.

Topic wheel for Super Bowl ads pertaining to the Auto Industry.

Looking into the analytics for the ads in the automotive industry, Lexus and KIA stood out among competitors. KIA’S ad featured Steven Tyler and took him back in time with a clever approach and interesting story line. Many viewers seemed to show interest in this ad by showing a substantial amount of engagement in their volume of Tweets. As obtained in earlier findings, brands find success in celebrity endorsements. Lexus even further drove the conversation with their ad that surfaced the internet on February 1^st. The Lexus ad featured Black Panther. This movie has quickly become the most talked about movie of 2018 and many movie goers are anticipating its debut on the 16^th of this month. This was a clever and strategic decision that Lexus made and these results in post volume support that it was indeed successful.

Which car would Black Panther drive? Apparently a Lexus. https://t.co/WIalbLncy8 pic.twitter.com/YGR96BVfpU

— CNET (@CNET) January 28, 2018

After this clip was released, it totally cannibalized the conversation of automotive ads as seen in this topic wheel. The topic wheel displays that Black Panther took up a larger sector of the buzz in comparison to KIA.

It is essential to recognize the careful planning and strategy that goes into ad placement and ad execution. These two brands are great examples of how to effective connect with their audience. Lexus did an amazing job in capturing their audience as well as partnering with a highly talked about movie which increased their engagement significantly.

This graph show the post volume of tweets pertaining to automotive ads during the duration of these dates. The featured tweets display the major conversation that was taking place and explains the spikes in post volume.

This post was contributed by SEE Suite Intern Kenya Jordan.