• by Karl Greenberg , February 7, 2011

Now comes the real post-game analysis. Not of the game, of course, but of the advertising, with which viewers were inundated on Sunday.

In the auto category, Edmunds.com measured the effectiveness of the record number of auto ads during the game by gauging traffic to its auto-shopping site. The firm says Chrysler, Volkswagen and Chevrolet saw the most significant spikes after their ads ran.

Jeremy Anwyl, CEO of Edmunds.com, says Chrysler was a winner with its two-minute-long, campaign-launching spot "Imported from Detroit." The ad shows the Motor City in the rough and features Eminem driving a Chrysler 200 to the city's Fox Theatre. Overall, traffic for the Chrysler brand at Edmunds.com shot up 328% in the hours after the commercial aired, including a 1,700% spike for the Chrysler 200.

"Chrysler is creating an association that is almost like how we think about Apple, as innovative," says Anwyl. "They are talking about the company more than the product."

Traffic on Edmunds.com looking for information on VW's Beetle rose 271% after VW's ad aired in the fourth quarter. The Passat, whose second-quarter ad featured a child dressed like Darth Vader, saw its traffic spike 114% on the site.

Searches on Edmunds.com for the Chevrolet Camaro, Cruze and Volt increased 69%, 63% and 15%, respectively. Overall, interest in Chevrolet increased 21% on Edmunds.com in the hours after the Super Bowl, per the company.

Hyundai ran two commercials for the Elantra and saw a surge of 79% on Edmunds.com. They were less successful with its Sonata Hybrid, whose traffic ticked up only slightly (+4%) after its ad ran in the fourth quarter.

Anwyl also says Audi saw a big traffic lift for its ad for the A8 sedan. "In terms of percentage lift, Audi A8 did really well, but those are increases based on raw numbers, which for Audi aren't that large. Chevrolet has a fair amount of consideration to begin with, so for them a big increase is huge." He argues that Chevrolet's ad for the Cruze compact car, in which people in a retirement home have trouble hearing that the car gets 42 mpg, was simple but effective. "They are taking a key product attribute and banging away at it. They created a device to let them harp on that."

He said VW's "Darth Vader" ad was effective for taking a different look at a universal truth. "They took a product feature and wrapped it in a story that encapsulated something universal."

By any other measure ...

In its 8th annual Meaningful Messages Super Bowl survey of 7,000 people, independent ad agency Allen & Gerritsen found that the ads that people said would make them take action were the "NFL Super Bowl Celebration" ad, followed by Go Daddy's "The Contract," Bridgestone's "Carma" spot, Kim Kardashian's ad for Skechers, and CarMax's "Gas Station."

The firm said the NFL Super Bowl Celebration, Go Daddy and Coca-Cola's "Border Crossing" were also the most meaningful ads. The least meaningful, according to the survey, were Mini's "Cram It in the Boot" spot; HomeAway.com's "Smush" ad and Teleflora's "Help me Faith."

Market research firm General Sentiment's 2011 Super Bowl Media Value Report said the brands with the most effective Super Bowl programs were Doritos, E*Trade, Bud Light, Volkswagen Passat, Snickers, Cars.com, Bridgestone, Audi, Budweiser and Stella Artois. Those on the bottom, per the firm's measure, were Universal Studios, Motorola, HomeAway, Chrysler, Volkswagen Beetle, TeleFlora, General Motors, CarMax and Salesforce.com.