Leading car marques Range Rover, Volkswagen, Audi, Suzuki and Polestar are among the first to use ITV's new addressable advertising solution for motor manufacturers, designed to empower advertisers to connect with known active car buyers through ITVX.

Auto Match, which was announced in March this year, is a new advertising solution in partnership with Carwow, one of the UK's largest online destinations for car changing.

Powered by Carwow's first-party data, the system securely matches Carwow's audience data with ITVX's registered users to enable precise audience targeting.

It is claimed that this allows car manufacturers to reach over 1.3 million known active new car buyers and measure post-ad exposure uplift on key metrics such as website traffic, car configurations, and sales. It is available through ITV's self-serve programmatic platform Planet V.

ITV has also partnered with leading car industry web analytics company Sophus3 to provide insights and measurement.

The broadcast maintains that initial results from Auto Match campaigns show that it drives more web visits, creates a stronger intent to buy, and narrows a car buyer's shortlist.

Compared to a standard ITVX campaign, Auto Match generates 129% more visits across both car brand site and related Carwow pages, is 133% more effective at shifting viewers towards active mid-funnel actions, such as configurations and stock checks, and narrows buyers' shortlists - reducing the number of car brands Carwow users consider by 27%.

Sophus3's technology, which partners with 26 car manufacturers, matches known ITVX Auto Match-exposed viewers to ensuing behaviours on both car advertisers' websites and on Carwow.

A range of key performance behaviours are analysed, including visits, configurations, and test drive enquiries, providing advertisers with a deeper understanding of campaign effectiveness and return on investment.

ITV controller of advanced advertising Jay Rajdev said: "Car advertisers have successfully built long-term fame with TV advertising for many years. With Auto Match, our aim was to understand how these advertisers can also deploy that powerful creative asset to drive shorter-term performance.

"This partnership with Sophus3 provides invaluable insights on car buyer journeys and the impact of Auto Match within these. It's a testament to the strength of Auto Match that leading brands have signed up to be part of it and crucially, are already seeing results from tangible online actions including significant web traffic increases."

Sophus3 head of media partnerships Steve Machin added: "This partnership marks a significant step forward in how car brands can view and measure the impact of TV advertising.

"For the first time, working with ITV, we're able to independently assess how ad exposure influences consumer buying behaviour. These impressive results already show that smart use of data can drive more intent-based actions than previously thought possible."

Major car brands sign up for ITV data-driven ad scheme - DecisionMarketing