Mercedes Showcases Top-Notch GLS Features in Recently Aired Highly Watched Luxury Car TV Commercial
Luxury Car Brands Leverage Sports for High-Engagement Advertising
During the week of July 14-20, luxury automakers turned to sports-related programming as a key driver for their television advertisements. This strategy is aimed at tapping into engaged, affluent audiences who are prime targets for luxury car brands.
Luxury car brands often align themselves with sports events to reach affluent and passionate viewers, leveraging the prestige and excitement associated with sports content. For instance, Lexus ran a notable campaign featuring tennis players that coincided with the tennis season, using Sky Sports to amplify its message [1].
In the case of Lexus, tennis-themed campaigns across Sky Sports and their own channels, associating with tennis events featuring Jamie Murray and Laura Robson, likely generated high impressions due to tennis’ dedicated audience and unique marketing stunts aired on sports broadcasts [1].
While explicit program-level details for Mercedes-Benz and Genesis during this period are not directly specified, it is common for luxury auto brands like Mercedes-Benz to focus on major sporting events such as auto racing series (e.g., IndyCar or IMSA events), high-profile basketball or football games, and other premium live sports content to gain top impressions. The timing around mid-July includes events like the Chevrolet Grand Prix (IMSA) on July 11-13 [3] and NTT IndyCar Series races close to July 21 [4], where Mercedes-Benz traditionally advertises.
Notably, the Mercedes-Benz ad performed exceptionally well in iSpot's Creative Assessment, scoring in the 95th percentile for relevance, the 94th percentile for desire, and the 90th percentile for likeability [5].
The data, provided by iSpot, The New Standard for TV Ad Measurement, also reveals that Lexus's "Shade" ad received 83,767,982 TV ad impressions and had an attention index of 99, while the "Dogs" ad received 83,406,303 impressions with an attention index of 90 [6]. The Genesis TV ad received 104.6 million national TV ad impressions [7].
Each of Lexus's top three ads highlights their Golden Opportunity Sales Event [8]. Over 41% of the Mercedes-Benz ad's total impressions came from the 2025 Open Championship [9]. Interestingly, Lexus owns the final three spots on the ranking of the most-seen luxury auto TV ads, and SportsCenter was the top impression-generating program for each of Lexus's top three ads [10].
Regarding metrics provided by iSpot, the interruption rate for Lexus's "Dogs" ad was 1.49%, and the interruption rate for Lexus's "Shade" ad was 1.80% [11]. The Genesis ad's total impressions were distributed across the 2025 Open Championship (15.8%), MLB games (11.8%), and the 2025 ESPYs (4.3%) [12]. The Genesis ad's interruption rate was 2.35% [13].
In conclusion, luxury auto brands used sports-related programs as key TV ad platforms during July 14-20 to tap into engaged, affluent audiences. Lexus led with tennis-centric advertising on Sky Sports, while Mercedes-Benz and Genesis likely targeted major racing events and popular sports broadcasts to maximize impressions. This strategy aligns with broader industry trends showing robust sports ad spending and increased upfront commitments in sports content [2].
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Luxury car brands, such as Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, and Genesis, utilized sports-related programming to tap into affluent, engaged audiences during July 14-20, often aligning with prestigious sports events to leverage the excitement associated with sports content. For example, Lexus ran a notable tennis-themed campaign on Sky Sports, while Mercedes-Benz typically concentrates on major racing events like IndyCar or IMSA series, or high-profile basketball or football games, and other premium live sports content. These strategies aim to maximize impressions within the sports finance industry.
