Vroom guarantees trouble-free automotive buy

Used car dealer Vroom buys and sells vehicles online without consumers having to go to a physical dealer.

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Online used car dealer Vroom is buying its first Super Bowl airtime Sunday to introduce the company to the 100 million or so fans who watch the game every year – and to poke fun at its competition.

Vroom buys and sells vehicles online without customers having to go to a dealer. The 30-second Super Bowl ad, titled “Dealership Pain,” focuses on pressure to buy a vehicle through a traditional auto dealer.

“We felt that the Super Bowl would be such an opportunity for us to get that message across about our brand promise. That means you never have to go to a dealer again,” said Peter Scherr, Vroom’s chief marketing officer CNBC. “We felt this was a way of creating a new normal for Vroom for buying and selling cars. And we will continue that dynamic into 21”.

Vroom’s business is similar to Carvana, a larger e-commerce platform for buying and selling used cars. Rather than reaching out to such a competitor, Vroom focused on physical dealerships in general – a much larger market than Carvana’s customers, who are already knowledgeable about buying a car online.

“The way we see it, our traditional competitors are traditional dealers,” said Scherr. “There is plenty of room for us to be successful in the Super Bowl and Carvana is continuing on its road to success.”

Paul Hennessy, CEO of Vroom added, “It just didn’t make sense to pick one of the smallest players in the room and then compete with them. We are competing with the goal of our customers, which are basically traditional traders.”

In the Vroom ad, a car buyer is pressured almost so much by a used car dealer that he is tortured with jumper cables. While the customer asks to leave, the seller leans over to attach the jumper cables to him. The chair and scene turn to the man sitting in his front yard and a woman who is picking up a vehicle from Vroom. “Well, that was painless,” says the actor when the vehicle is delivered.

The Super Bowl ad is part of an advertising campaign for Vroom with similar spots, including one titled “Dealership Deceit,” which aired during Sunday’s AFC championship game for the NFL.

Both Hennessy and Scherr expect the Super Bowl ad to further increase awareness and business for Vroom, which went public in June.

“We’re thinking long term and building a business long term,” said Hennessy. “We expect Vroom to be a household name.”

Vroom’s sales rose 86% to 10,860 vehicles in the first three quarters of last year, which resulted in the company’s revenue increasing 62% to $ 630.5 million in that period compared to 2019. Compared to Carvana, which had sales of nearly 172,000 vehicles and sales of $ 3.8 billion in the first nine months of last year. Both companies are unprofitable.

– CNBC’s Megan Graham contributed to this report.