Tracking Changes in the Online Habits of Distinct Types of New-Vehicle Buyers Is Crucial for Online Advertisers

Niche Groups of Consumers Can Be Reached by Monitoring Web Site Visitation

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., Dec. 14 -- Web sites such as AOL Sports and mySpace are receiving more traffic from very distinct types of new-vehicle buyers, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2006 Online Media Study(SM) -- Wave 2 released today.

For example, recent buyers of midsize premium sporty vehicles, such as the Lexus SC Series, showed a 9 percentage-point increase in visitation to the AOL Sports site in August-October 2006 compared with data from the J.D. Power and Associates 2006 Online Media Study(SM) -- Wave 1, which measured Internet usage and behavior among new-vehicle buyers in April-May 2006. Buyers of compact utility vehicles such as the Jeep Liberty increased their visits to mySpace by 13 percentage points over the same time period.

"This suggests that online automotive advertisers need to be more precise in selecting sites for advertising," said Steve Witten, executive director of automotive research at J.D. Power and Associates. "Buyers of specific vehicle model segments demonstrate visitation patterns very different from the mass of all new-vehicle buyers."

When examining all new-vehicle buyers as a whole, the most visited sites experienced visitation increases of only 4 percentage points or less. Yet many sites experience double-digit percentage increases among buyers of specific vehicle segments.

The online patterns of specific segment buyers display is evident even within the channel sites of large portals such as Yahoo! Buyers of compact utility vehicles, such as the Jeep Wrangler, Nissan Xterra and Toyota FJ Cruiser, visited Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! Games at a much higher rate compared to six months ago (12 and 7 percentage-point increases, respectively).

"These differences make it clear that looking at new-vehicle buyers by the type of vehicle they are interested in is crucial for determining the most efficient sites for advertisement placement," said Witten. "Automakers and their online advertisers can capitalize on the opportunity to target a niche group of consumers that would be interested in their vehicles by watching for visitation increases at particular Web sites."

While people are reading about travel on the Internet at basically the same rate as six months ago -- 27 percent frequently read about travel online compared with 28 percent in the Wave 1 study -- many of the specific travel sites have dropped in visitation. Expedia.com dropped 6 percentage points, Priceline dropped 4 percentage points and ORBITZ dropped 3 percentage points. The drop in visitation to travel sites is likely due to seasonality, with more people investigating their summer vacation options in late spring. Yet, buyers of compact premium conventional and midsize CUVs, such as the Acura TL, BMW 3 Series, Chrysler Pacifica and Toyota Highlander, are visiting MSN Travel more often, with a 5 percentage-point increase compared with the Wave 1 study.

The Online Media Study also measures new-technology usage among new-vehicle buyers. For new-vehicle buyers using the Internet, wireless broadband is now as common as dial-up, with the vast majority using wired broadband connections (69%). Subscriptions to satellite radio are also up to more than one-quarter of new-vehicle buyers with Internet access (26% compared to 22% in Wave 1).

The Online Media Study Wave 2 is based on a random national sample of 11,384 verified new-vehicle buyers with Internet access who purchased a new vehicle in February or March 2006. The study takes an in-depth look at the Internet usage and behaviors or new-vehicle buyers to identify Web sites that most effectively target desirable advertising audiences in terms of reach, scope and cost.