A Super Bowl LVI commercial came with a price cost of $6.5 million for 30 seconds of ad time. Leading electric vehicle company Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) didn’t run an ad but might have come away as a winner anyway.
What Happened: Super Bowl LVI, which aired on Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) owned NBC, featured a handful of commercials from automobile companies with a heavy focus on a transition to electric vehicles.
Among the advertisers were Toyota Motor Corp (NYSE:TM), Kia, BMW (OTC:BMWYY), General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), Nissan and Polestar, which is merging with Gores Guggenheim Inc (NASDAQ:GGPI).
Some of the companies such as Polestar used ad time to show off their vehicles while also taking shots at Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk and other automotive rivals.
The Polestar ad prompted a laughing emoji from Musk on Twitter in response to a tweet from a Tesla fan highlighting the “bold strategy” of taking digs at Tesla during the Super Bowl.
Outside of the automotive industry, Salesforce.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRM) also seemed to poke fun at Musk, with an ad starring Matthew McConaughey mentioning the idea of going to Mars was escaping reality.
Related Link: Complete List: Here Are All The Companies With Super Bowl LVI Commercials
Why It’s Important: Over the years, Tesla has chosen not run commercials and focus on its product and strong word-of-mouth advertising instead. The company has used a customer referral reward system to gain additional customers and reward existing ones.
A report from Cleantechnica shows that despite Tesla rivals running Super Bowl commercials and shelling out the huge $6.5 million price tag for a spot, Tesla saw a spike in search traffic on Google during the Super Bowl.
Polestar and Kia saw initial spikes when their commercial aired that put them slightly ahead of searches for Tesla, but quickly dropped below the electric vehicle leader. The ads from General Motors didn’t land as well with Google searches, falling below Tesla during the time of the commercials.
The report also highlights how many automotive companies may not be making electric vehicles simply to better society, but could be doing it to compete with Tesla. Over the years, Tesla has taken market share away from traditional automotive companies.
“This is the difference between Elon Musk and the other companies that feel threatened by him. Threatened to the point where they spend millions of dollars for one 30-second ad in the Super Bowl to make a point. These companies focus on Elon Musk,” Cleantechnica said.
Price Action: TSLA shares are down 2.06% to $858.91 on Friday morning at publication.
Photo by Tesla Fans Schweiz on Unsplash
