Trade News

Content is still king in the Super Bowl.

While the spotlight could shine a little brighter on the few automakers who decided to make a pitch on advertising's biggest stage, brands shouldn't assume that just being there will be enough.

The four spots from General Motors, Jeep and Toyota will still need to deliver if they want to make an imprint on consumers.

In fact, with people social distancing due to the pandemic, the dynamics of how the game is viewed could change this year. With crowded Super Bowl parties out of the question for many, consumer attention on the ads could be even greater because they may not have "friends and distractions going on" that could take their focus off the screen, said Satya Menon, managing partner for the ROI practice at Kantar.

Kevin Krim, CEO at analytics firm EDO that can measure online search activity after ads air on TV, doesn't think the smaller number of auto brands will automatically translate into a larger-…

Otonomo CEO Ben Volkow delves into the Israeli startup’s plans to go public via a SPAC, how the company guards consumer privacy and the insights gleaned from more than 100 data points emerging from cars.

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DETROIT — Finally.

After numerous pitches through the years, Stellantis marketing chief Olivier Francois secured the talents of iconic musician Bruce Springsteen for a Jeep Super Bowl spot.

It's no surprise that they had to go big.

The ambitious Francois' knack for tapping into the pulse of America in Super Bowl spots combined with the socially conscious Springsteen's immense presence demanded nothing less.

The result is a two-minute film, "The Middle," that will focus on uniting the country and air during the fourth quarter of Sunday's NFL championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

One of the shoot locations for the ad was the U.S. Center Chapel in Lebanon, Kan., which stands in the geographical center of the continuous 48 states and carries symbolic meaning in the commercial as middle ground.

In the spot, Springsteen said "the middle" has been a hard place to get to lately, "between red and blue, be…

COVID-19 may have played a role in snapping Subaru of America's 12- year streak of sales increases and 11-year streak of record deliveries last year, but a third streak remained intact.

Its U.S. market share grew — the ninth consecutive year of such progress — despite a 13 percent decline in its sales. The Japanese company inched up 0.1 percent in 2020 to a 4.2 percent market share, while the pandemic-stricken nation suffered a 14 percent plunge in volume.

"It wasn't a huge increase, but I think the way we try to do business is just keep it steady and do everything we can to keep our foundation as solid as we can," said Jeff Walters, Subaru of America's senior vice president of sales. "We were happy, given some of the bigger challenges we had when things really started falling off the rails in the spring, that we could still turn out a market share increase."

Subaru's sales plunged 47 percent in both March and April, the biggest monthly declines in thr…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co.'s failure to close a deal with Google in early 2016 helped bring Mark Fields' tenure as CEO to an end.

Five years later, a different type of tie-up with the tech giant secured by CEO Jim Farley could be just the beginning.

A sweeping six-year partnership announced last week will give Ford access to Google's cloud technologies for use in its factories, dealerships and vehicles as the automaker rolls out data-rich connected services. Ford also will use Google's Android operating system to power the infotainment on millions of vehicles starting in 2023, and it's forming a team to explore future collaborations.

It's an early win under Farley for an automaker often chided by Wall Street for a lack of flashy announcements, hailed by one analyst as a "step in the right direction" that could generate billions in revenue. The Google deal and a subsequent commitment last week that nearly doubles Ford's investment in electrification to $22…

Toyota dealers this week will get their first concrete details about the brand's plans for its 2022 Tundra full-size pickup — the truck's first redesign in 14 years — which is set to arrive in dealerships by the end of the year.

But beyond a teaser video shown to dealers in November that revealed its LED lighting and what's been gleaned from test mules in various locations, very few details about the Tundra have leaked out. And executives at Toyota Motor North America have been characteristically tight-lipped.

Toyota's make meeting at the first virtual NADA Show this week will also cover the brand's newly improved SmartPath digital retailing tool. But the brand's retailers are particularly piqued by the prospect of having a competitive full-size pickup for the first time in years and the prospect of stealing market share in the segment from the Detroit 3.

"The new Tundra is the most exciting thing we've had in the last five-plus years," said Robby Find…

Regardless of what weather forecasters or groundhogs say, all signs point to a hot spring for the used-vehicle market.

"I have no reason to believe — and I see no data that would support — anything but that," said Jonathan Banks, general manager of vehicle valuations at J.D. Power.

There's typically a pop in used-vehicle demand during tax season, as people put returns toward car or truck purchases. This year, more consumers have extra cash, after months of forgoing leisure spending, and many may have fresh government stimulus checks in their pockets soon. New-vehicle inventory remains constrained, and more Americans are getting vaccinated for COVID-19, sparking hopes for a return to some kind of normalcy in economic life.

It all has experts and observers expecting a strong spring.

"The consensus that we hold, without any exceptions, is that the second half of this first quarter, and at least the second quarter of this year, are g…

The Chrysler brand needs some help.

The merger between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and France's PSA Group to form Stellantis could be its lifeline, said David Kelleher, chairman of the Stellantis National Dealer Council.

Kelleher believes Stellantis has a chance to fortify Chrysler, which sells the aging 300 sedan along with the Pacifica and Voyager minivans, with product from the PSA side.

Kelleher thinks this product infusion could be done at reasonable expense because the automaker wouldn't have to develop new models from the ground up.

He said he'd feel "violated" if the Chrysler brand was dropped.

"This whole thing started with Chrysler," Kelleher said. "I don't want to get emotional about a brand, that's not the case. But I don't want to see a brand like that left at the sideline and just thrown out to pasture."

While dealers await the next moves of the Stellantis team, Kelleher also is paying close attention to a move by rival …