Nielsen: Online Ads Resonate With Car Buyers

Sixty-five percent of global online consumers plan to buy a new or used car in the next two years, according to a new study by Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy. Auto demand will be strongest in Latin America (75%), Middle East/Africa (75%) and Asia-Pacific (72%), while more than half of online consumers in North America (56%) and 50 percent in Europe expect to buy a new or used car in the next 24 months.

The Nielsen Global Survey of Automotive Demand polled more than 30,000 Internet respondents  in 60 countries to identify where automotive demand is greatest and to reveal the emotional and financial motives that are most influential in driving new and used car purchase intent. The findings are integrated with an 11-country media consumption study to uncover the media platforms where automotive advertising resonates strongest and which websites can be most helpful for car-buying consumers.

New car purchase intent is strongest in Asia-Pacific, where 65 percent of respondents say they will buy new in the next two years, compared with 7 percent who plan to buy used cars. In Latin America, 47 percent of respondents say they will buy a new car, while 28 percent plan to buy used. Similar ratios are found in Middle East/Africa (45% new vs. 30% used) and North America (34% new vs. 22% used) while in Europe, more respondents plan to buy a used car (28%) in favor of new (22%).

Advertising via online platforms is most helpful to consumers when buying a new car, according to Nielsen’s Media Consumption Survey (2012-2013) across 11 countries.

Nearly half (46%) of respondents say that automotive advertising via websites is “very helpful” when considering the purchase of a new car, compared with 42 percent who say the same about advertising on TV, followed by 32 percent for magazines, 29 percent for newspapers, 21 percent for mobile and 20 percent for radio ads. Online methods resonate strongest in India, where nearly three-quarters (74%) find websites very helpful, followed by Brazil (69%), China (60%), Thailand (58%) and Russia (51%).