Which Car Commercials Piqued Consumer Interest During Super Bowl LI?

The “Big Game” is as much of a sporting event and as it is a tactical delivery system for advertisements and, at roughly $5 million just to reserve a thirty second slot, the folks working in the media department want their commercials to have a strategic impact. Reaching your intended audience is only half the battle. You must also provoke them into action.

While there were plenty of Super Bowl 51 car commercials that got under people’s skin, those strong feelings often failed to morph into consumer interest. For example, Ford’s mobility-focused spot featuring Nina Simone’s classic civil rights song I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free was all over social media when it aired right after kickoff. However, nobody sent me a surprised and excited text about Ford like they did for Alfa Romeo.

Comparing its Super Bowl web traffic with regular Sunday levels, vehicle shopping site Edmunds tracked the brands and models that saw added attention during the game. It’s a useful measure to determine which ads were the most successful.

In terms of brands, Alfa Romeo was the easily the biggest winner. Traffic for the automaker went up 784 percent on Edmunds during the big game and Giulia-specific traffic was up 802 percent. I imagine a lot of that can be attributed to less car-obsessed Americans finding out that Alfa Romeo still exists. FCA hasn’t been great with its marketing and needs something like this to clue in the portion of North America not reading articles like this one to the brand’s return.

Lexus’ LC 500 popped, locked, and rotated a load of curious customers into researching the model after its high-energy television debut. Traffic for the LC went up a massive 1,710 percent on Edmunds. The next highest was the Kia Niro, which saw an 869-percent increase. Kia’s ad smartly featured Melissa McCarthy being repeatedly — and severely — injured for both her fans and haters to enjoy. Brand traffic rose 63 percent.

Buick’s efforts weren’t wasted either — the Cascada saw 459 percent more attention during the game. Meanwhile, Mercedes saw a 391-percent uptick in AMG GT research and Audi saw 431 percent more consumer interest for its S5.

Hyundai, despite having an ad positioned precisely when nobody could turn away from the game, didn’t seem to see any extra traffic resulting from its commercial. However, the automaker is only mentioned at the very end of the spot and possesses only a tangential relationship to the message. It was less of a commercial about the Korean company and more a message of goodwill, patriotism, and family values sponsored by Hyundai. Ford’s advertisement for mobility also failed to light a fire under Edmunds users.