Embattled Volkswagen’s ‘Party’ Emerges as Week’s Top Ad

Volkswagen, under fire for cheating in its diesel-emissions certification testing, lands the most-engaging ad of the week (based on combined online views, social media actions and online search), in this week’s Most Engaging Auto Ads, powered for WardsAuto by iSpot.tv.

Volkswagen’s “Party” was one of three new ads for the week making waves. The spot, supporting the company’s App Connect technology, earned 1.5 million views and an overall 24.5% share-of-voice rating among all automotive ads.

Trailing it in second place was Honda’s “Paper” ad, which had 19.5% share of voice and more than 483,000 views, while Scion’s “James Franco and James Franco” spot followed to round out the top three.

The tail of the list was made up by the still-charting “A Driver’s Life” from Mazda in fourth and Audi’s “Reality? Check” in the fifth spot.

Overall, automakers spent an estimated $119.6 million on TV ads for the week. Audi led the way with 7.9% of that total, followed by Nissan at 7.3% and Toyota at 6.6%.

NFL football was the most popular choice for the week’s automotive advertisers, with over $38.8 million spent among the various games.

iSpot.tv tracks TV ads in real-time and allows customers to monitor social actions, search activity and online video views associated with TV spots across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, Bing and Yahoo!.

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1. Volkswagen App-Connect TV Commercial, 'Party'

24.5% Digital Share of Voice, 1.5M Earned Online Views

2. Honda TV Spot, 'Paper'

19.5% Digital Share of Voice, 483k Earned Online Views

3. Scion TV Spot, 'James Franco and James Franco'

9.1% Digital Share of Voice, 592k Earned Online Views

4. 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata TV Spot, 'A Driver's Life: Driving Matters'

3.5% Digital Share of Voice, 245k Earned Online Views

5. Audi TT TV Spot, 'Reality? Check.'

3.3% Digital Share of Voice, 117k Earned Online Views