Electric Vehicle Advertising Up, But Falling Short on Relevance

PHOENIX BRAND EFFECT – With today's heightened awareness of our impact on the environment and a more sustainable future, consumers' interest in electric vehicles began to accelerate in 2020, which has coincided with a higher level of advertising activity. However, despite more brands flooding the market, none have managed to "crack the code" to become the dominant voice in EV advertising.

EV ads are often future-looking and thus it may not seem as relevant to consumers at present. 

According to Phoenix Brand Effect, we have yet to see any clear winners, as most brands struggle with being either memorable or well-branded in-market; at best, some were average on both. In digging into the creative diagnostics of those ads, we found the ads lack relevance and do not address why consumers need to jump onto this EV bandwagon. EV ads are often future-looking and thus it may not seem as relevant to consumers at present. 

We have identified some key advertising learnings that can help EV brands break through this increasingly crowded marketplace: 

• In addition to being forward-looking, be sure to ground your advertising in relatable situations and identify the present-day reasons why your consumers should choose your EV. A great way to achieve this is by applying System 1 tools (including Emotivation) to uncover emotional drivers that may help drive greater relevance. 
• Though an ad may be strong creatively, it still requires strong media support to break through. Of the current brands in the market, the only two to perform near average were supported by ads in the Super Bowl. High-value, special programming (such as the Super Bowl or the Olympics) can be an excellent value add to support advertising launches and support in-market breakthrough. 

Phoenix MI has been closely tracking and analyzing trends in the Electric Vehicle (EV) market since 2018 and anticipate EV’s (and likewise, their advertising) to increase their prevalence in the Automotive market in the coming years, and have been tailoring our research to cater to this new, emerging market.