Audi’s “Doberhuahua” won’t be terrorizing the Super Bowl airwaves this year.
Volkswagen’s luxury brand, for the first time in seven years, isn’t advertising during the game this year, a spokesman confirmed today.
The news comes a day after a Ford spokeswoman said the Ford and Lincoln brands wouldn’t participate either.
So far, six brands -- BMW, Kia, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Toyota -- are expected to run ads, but some brands have yet to announce their intentions. In 2014, 11 auto brands aired commercials during the game.
The spokesman wrote in an email today that for nearly a decade, the Super Bowl has been a “fantastic platform for awareness at a time when our brand needed.”
“We were the first auto maker in our class to begin advertising in the Super Bowl in 2008 and we saw many follow us into the big game. Year-after-year, we’ve continued to see record levels of awareness and showroom traffic with national consideration numbers showing significant spikes post-game,” the spokesman wrote.
“We were the first brand to advance the social media conversation by [bringing] a # tag. All of these efforts have led Audi to substantial increases in market share against other imported luxury brands. While the NFL remains an important platform for reaching our consumers, we won’t be investing in the game this year.”
Audi has been on a hot streak since 2010, jumping to No. 4 among luxury brands in the U.S. last year. Sales rose 15 percent to 158,061 vehicles.
In the last five years, auto advertising has accounted for more than 30 percent of Super Bowl advertising airtime, according to Ace Metrix, a TV and video analytics company.
Ace Metrix says that out of the 263 Super Bowl ads that have aired since 2010, 49 (18 percent) of them have come from non-luxury brands, while 19 (7 percent) have come from luxury auto brands.
For a list and links to all recent automotive Super Bowl ads, including 2015, click here.
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