The business has primarily invested in media channels like broadcast TV, revolving around Sunday Night Football, and its planning to double down on this strategy. Gilpin said Hyundai will also activate around other sports programming, including NBA broadcasts and the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
“We’re not looking at [tariffs] as an impact on our sales ambitions or our brand growth, so we’re going to continue to invest as planned,” he said.
Hyundai reported a 7.7% year-over-year sales increase for 2024, with revenues hitting $123.7 million.
Allyson Witherspoon, CMO, Nissan U.S.
Witherspoon, who became the brand’s U.S. CMO in November 2024, said that after the election, Nissan saw an uptick in consumers searching for the price of its vehicles, triggered by concerns around Trump’s economic policies.
These insights, along with pending auto tariffs, led Nissan to lower the price of its Rogue and Pathfinder models earlier this month, both of which, it predicts, will see an increase in sales in Q2 2025 due to the discount.
The brand is also shifting some of its marketing focus and messaging to support its U.S.-based vehicles, reinforcing that more than 50% of its manufacturing occurs in the U.S.
“We’ve always been about trying to provide the right types of vehicles with the technology that consumers are looking for, but at an accessible price point,” said Witherspoon. “The tariff piece created a competitive advantage.”
Following a failed merger with Honda and a subsequent CEO switch, Nissan has been souping up its vehicles, like the electric Leaf model and mid-size Murano SUV, as part of a bigger brand turnaround.
For Q1 2025, Nissan reported that sales for the Leaf were up 103.4% year-over-year, while sales for the Murano were up 84.1% year-over-year.
Right now, the exec said that she doesn’t see tariffs affecting Nissan’s advertising budget for the rest of 2025, some of which is divided between upcoming campaigns for its Rogue, Leaf, and Sentra models. However, she acknowledged that this could change as the situation is “very dynamic.”
