cars news 10: Study: Corvette is Most-Discussed Car Online, Ford Most-Discussed Brand

The Chevrolet Corvette is the most talked-about and read-about car online, according to a new study conducted by search advertising provider Swoop. But Ford takes the cake as the brand that garners the most attention online overall.

In the second quarter of the year, Ford edged out Chevrolet by less than one percentage point to become the vehicle with the most online exposure in the U.S. Honda came in third place, almost five percentage points behind Chevrolet. Dodge and Jeep rounded out the top five.

When it comes to individual cars, the Chevy Corvette commanded the most attention online in the second quarter. Not far behind was the Ford F-150, which incidentally, has been the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. for more than three decades. The Ford Mustang, Dodge Ram pickup, and Honda Civic finished just behind the F-150.

Swoop also looked at how efficiently automakers spend their digital advertising dollars. According to the study, Ford spent just $0.58 million dollars for every 1 percent of digital exposure it gained online, compared to Toyota, which had to shell out nearly $6.30 million to reach that same goal. Swoop says this data highlights Toyota’s “position as a brand that sells well but doesn’t generate much organic digital ‘buzz'” compared to its rivals.

Surprisingly, the now-discontinued Honda CR-Z performed quite well in the study. It placed eighth among the top 100 automotive models with the most brand exposure for the second quarter. It also performed second among compact cars, after the Honda Civic.

When it comes to midsize cars, Honda gained a large share of the exposure pie thanks to the Accord. Meanwhile, there weren’t any big winners among crossovers and luxury cars, given that those are highly competitive markets. Check out the charts below for a closer look at the “most visible” cars in each segment.

Swoop uses its own search engine to extract brand and model data from online pages. Its “Automotive Visibility Index” measures automakers with the most articles, discussions, and pages devoted to and read about over a given quarter of a year. “A search for an automotive brand is a singular point in time. Swoop details users’ full experiences, from that initial pageview on. For example, if someone searches for Honda and comes to an article, while Google Trends will register the Honda brand hit, Swoop will register it and however many other brands the user investigates over the course of browsing,” the company explains on its website.

Source: Swoop