Infiniti's blue phase

Online television show content is emerging as an increasingly effective way to reach new-vehicle buyers, 68 percent of which report going online to find information on TV shows, according to the JD Power and Associates 2008 Power Auto Online Media Study - Summer (via MarketingCharts).

Moreover, the reach of online television show content among new-vehicle buyers has increased 22 percent from 2007, the study finds.

The semi-annual study, in its third year, studies the internet usage and behavior of new-vehicle buyers and identifies websites that most effectively target desirable advertising audiences.

TV show content is among the top three types of online information consumed by new-vehicle buyers, along with travel-related information (including maps, driving directions and weather reports) and news (including finance and business-related content), J.D. Power found.

Among the key findings:

• New-vehicle buyers most frequently visit the following websites when searching for television content: CNN.com (with 30 percent reach among new-vehicle buyers); MSNBC (24 percent); ESPN (23 percent); and FOXNews.com (21 percent).
• Among television network websites, ABC's is visited most frequently by online users (with 16 percent reach among new-vehicle buyers), followed closely by CBS's and NBC's (each with 13 percent).

J.D. Power and Associates forecasts that fewer than 15 million new vehicles will be sold in 2008, compared with 16.1 million sold in 2007.

"As new-vehicle sales shrink, understanding which advertising mediums will provide the best balance of audience reach and composition is absolutely critical," said Arianne Walker, director of marketing and media research at J.D. Power and Associates.

MarketingCharts has a few more tidbits of data from the study.