Working on a hunch, I conducted a very unscientific study. I counted all the commercials during last night’s episode of “Glee” to see how many were either commercials related to cars or commercials related to financial services. By my rough count, about 26% of the commercials fell within either of those two categories; an amount which I think is fairly representative of a normal hour of primetime television as well as being a normal distribution of television advertisements.
The reason for this study was to raise the issue of the dearth of auto finance advertising. More than one out of four ads that aired during “Glee” last night were for cars or banking products; yet none featured car loans themselves.
There are more registered vehicles in the U.S. than people. Yet I see “Professional drivers on a closed track” more times in automobile advertisements than I see commercials touting interest rates or lease terms. I see Regis and Kelly hawking the great customer service of TD Bank, yet they never talk about car loans. Capital One has Jerry Stiller promoting the interest rate being offered by the bank on its checking accounts. But no mention of auto finance.
I understand that there is a bifurcation within the auto finance industry. Most loans are originated indirectly to consumers via car dealers. But why should that stop a lender or manufacturer from advertising its loan products?
I was on a conference call last week and an auto lender mentioned that the affinity between credit unions and its members can be so strong that the members will go into a dealership requesting a loan from their credit union. Can’t the same be true for Capital One? Or GM Financial? Or Bank of America?
The absence of auto finance-related advertisements is an open door for any lender that is willing to take a chance and try to grab marketshare, at a time when the car business is rebounding strongly and auto finance is growing.
