(February 8, 2011) IRVINE, Calif. (PRNewswire) — Kelley Blue Book, www.kbb.com, today reported a huge surge in new-car Web traffic for the all-new Chrysler 200 during Sunday's Super Bowl XLV matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers.

In addition, kbb.com saw a significant lift in new-car traffic for the Volkswagen New Beetle, Hyundai Elantra and Volkswagen Passat following the airing of their respective new-vehicle ads on Sunday.

All automakers who advertised during the big game on Sunday saw a lift in shopper activity on kbb.com following the airing of their ads, with Chrysler leading the pack with a 213 percent increase to the brand's traffic. Following Chrysler, the brands that saw the most increased shopper activity included MINI (154 percent), BMW (136 percent), Hyundai (135 percent) and Audi (131 percent).

"Car shoppers and enthusiasts are clearly taking time away from the ads featuring monkeys, dogs and talking babies to visit objective third-party websites to obtain pricing, reviews and information on all the cars advertised during Sunday's game," said Jack R. Nerad, executive editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book.

Chrysler's two-minute
Super Bowl ad drives
traffic on kbb

"Kbb.com traffic is a leading indicator of new-car shopper behavior, so the buzz we're seeing from consumers in the middle of the game certainly demonstrated shoppers' interest and likely predicts future sales."

In addition, many of the specific models advertised on Sunday experienced a major surge from interested shoppers both during and after the game. Chrysler's two-minute "Imported from Detroit" spot for the Chrysler 200, featuring popular musician Eminem, garnered the most attention, with a whopping 1013 percent increase in traffic for the Chrysler 200.

The buzz-building ad for the redesigned Volkswagen New Beetle created a 293 percent surge in traffic for that model, and the highly anticipated Hyundai Elantra's ad drove a 270 percent increase for that vehicle. Volkswagen's lauded "The Force" ad for the all-new Passat was a fan favorite and also generated a 229 percent increase in traffic for that model on kbb.com.

In the days leading up to the Super Bowl, a kbb.com homepage quick poll asked car shoppers which automakers' ads they were most interested in seeing on Sunday.

Volkswagen's Darth Vader
ad proves to be fan favorite

Chevrolet was the leading brand in that poll, with 30 percent of car shoppers saying they were most anticipating Chevy's ads. On Sunday and the day following the game, a kbb.com homepage quick poll asked car shoppers which automaker had the best commercial(s) during the game.

Volkswagen was the clear winner among shoppers once they viewed the ads, with 30 percent saying they liked Volkswagen's commercials the best. Following Volkswagen was Chrysler at 20 percent.

"The results from the kbb.com traffic and quick poll data following Sunday's game shows that with the right creative execution and the product to back it up, automakers can succeed in capturing new-car shoppers' attention when making big-budget ad buys," said Nerad.

For the purposes of this data, traffic increase is defined as the percent change when comparing Super Bowl Sunday, February 6, 2011, with the previous Sunday, January 30, 2011.