Cars.com Accelerates Sports Ad Campaign

Cars.com says it plans to step up its investment in sports sponsorship and advertising in an effort to capture share as the market for car buying continues to recover.

Cars.com will accelerate its marketing efforts in the final weeks of the year with a series of halftime show sponsorships and commercials that will air on NFL and college bowl games in addition to high-profile sports news programming. As previously announced, the company will kick off its 2010 advertising campaign on February 7th with a 60-second commercial at Super Bowl XLIV on CBS.

"With the economy recovering and consumer confidence growing, car buyers are increasingly returning to market. In fact, through the end of November, we've seen leads rise 9 percent above the same period last year," said Mitch Golub, president of Cars.com.

"Now is a great time to up our investment in our brand and our advertisers."

The Cars.com advertising blitz includes halftime sponsorship of 10 college bowl games on ESPN and several 30-second spots on ESPN's Monday Night Football, ESPN's SportsCenter, regional NFL games on CBS and NBC and college bowl games on CBS. It kicks off this Saturday with the company's sponsorship of the New Mexico and St. Petersburg bowls.

"Our fall campaign including the sponsorship of ESPN College Football and high-impact online sponsorships has been very effective at reaching in-market car shoppers and driving them to our site," Golub said.

"We are excited to build on that momentum with a great line-up of sponsorships to close out the year. We want car shoppers to know they can count on Cars.com for comprehensive, objective information about what to buy, where to buy and how much to pay for a car."

Check out the company's 2009 Super Bowl spot: