Chrysler traffic continues to soar on Edmunds.com one week after Super Bowl ad

(February 16, 2011) SANTA MONICA, Calif. — One week after Chrysler's "Imported From Detroit" ad aired on Super Bowl Sunday, the Motor City automaker continues to enjoy a significant boost of interest in the brand, according to new site traffic figures released today by Edmunds.com.

In the week following the Super Bowl, consideration for Chrysler climbed 87 percent compared to the brand's average on Edmunds.com during the prior four weeks. The surge has been driven by interest in the Chrysler 200 —the subject of the Super Bowl ad — whose consideration level soared 463 percent after seeing near-dormant consideration before the big game. Interestingly, visitor interest in the Chrysler 300 virtually doubled in the last week even though the vehicle was not mentioned in the Super Bowl ad.

Last week, Edmunds.com reported Chrysler's impressive performance on the site in the hours following the Super Bowl. But the one-week mark offers a better long-term test that Chrysler seems to have passed.

"It shouldn't be surprising that viewers get swept up in the Super Bowl ad buzz for the next day or two," said Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Michelle Krebs. "But Chrysler's message seems to have resonated with viewers far beyond that first wave of buzz. While consideration for the other automotive advertisers has fallen back to earth, Chrysler is still getting much more attention now than just two or three weeks ago."

Kia (+13%) and Hyundai (+11%) are the only two automotive brands to see double-digit consideration lifts on Edmunds.com in the week after the Super Bowl. Volkswagen (+7%), Chevrolet (+5%) and Audi (+2%) all earned strong buzz immediately after the Super Bowl, but saw only marginal increases in consideration over the following week.

But while those companies saw little overall bumps, some of their models showed some staying power among consumers. Consideration for the Chevy Silverado 3500HD came in very strong at +143%, while consideration for the VW New Beetle and Passat climbed 79 percent and 70 percent, respectively, in the last week.

For the purposes of this evaluation, Edmunds.com's compared consideration at the make and model levels for the week following the Super Bowl (2/7 — 2/10/11) to the average for the four prior weeks (ending 1/9, 1/16, 1/23 and 1/30).