(February 6, 2019) SANTA MONICA, Calif. — While the Super Bowl may not go down as the most exciting in recent memory, ads for flashy new vehicles from Audi and Toyota generated excitement from car shoppers on Edmunds. Audi's "Cashew" ad promoting the e-tron lineup was the most successful ad of the night, boosting traffic to the e-tron GT by 13,578 percent, and helping Audi enjoy the most traffic growth of any advertised brand, up 116 percent. Toyota's "Wizard" ad was also a big success, with traffic to Supra pages also up more than 13,000 percent.

Edmunds analysts tracked traffic to brand and model pages on both its desktop and mobile sites during the game to see which automotive ads were most successful in driving immediate shopper interest. Percentage lifts are compared to average Sunday traffic levels on Edmunds.

"Even as automakers explore new ways to use the buzz around the big game to grab the attention of car shoppers, our data continues to prove that the traditional broadcast spots still have a place," said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds executive director of industry analysis.

"A commercial that both entertains and shows a car people have never seen before tends to be the winning formula to entice people to go online immediately to learn more. Even though base size does play a role when looking at website traffic lifts like this, the fact that Audi and Toyota were so successful in getting immediate interest shows that they're clearly doing something right."

Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and Kia also benefited from this phenomenon, as their ads featuring the brand new Palisade, A-Class and Telluride also enjoyed significant traffic spikes on Edmunds.

Hyundai had the second highest lift at the brand level, up 50 percent, while Mercedes enjoyed a 38 percent lift as a brand and a more than 1,600 percent lift for the A-Class. Shopper traffic to the Kia Telluride was up nearly 2,000 percent.