Drama is good for Super Bowl commercials. It's less good when you're shopping for a car.
Cars.com is vowing to bring some extra drama to the Feb. 3 broadcast with its 30-second first-quarter commercial. The ad is the company's sixth straight Super Bowl spot, though its first from new lead agency mcgarrybowen in Chicago.
The plot has not been revealed, although Cars.com has confirmed it will take place in a car dealership.
Two teasers have been released. The first shows shoppers at a dealer saying how surprised they are that there wasn't more drama involved in shopping at Cars.com. The other (posted below) shows a mock focus group testing Cars.com advertising—a scene that suddenly becomes unexpectedly dramatic, much to the chagrin of the focus-group leader.
The campaign, themed "Why drama?", will live online at cars.com/whydrama.
"With a brand-new campaign, we wanted to build excitement for our ad and save its reveal for the Super Bowl," said Linda Bartman, Cars.com's chief marketing officer.
"We have heard from car shoppers that buying a new car can be overwhelming, and sometimes even stressful, so our new campaign shows how dealers help car shoppers have a drama-free buying experience by using Cars.com. … As has been the case for the last five years, the Super Bowl remains the perfect place to tell our story to an unprecedented audience."
Along with mcgarrybowen, other agencies on Cars.com's integrated team include Avenue (B2B), Edelman Digital (social), OMD (media buying), Optimum Sport (media buying), Prometheus (media buying) and Piston (digital).
DDB Chicago was the previous lead creative agency on the account.